HUC-12

The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska, the Upper Republican Natural Resource District (URNRD), and members of NEWBA recently submitted a grant to NRCS to support a collaboration to produce accurate and spatially distributed estimates of precipitation, evapotranspiration and soil water balance in near real-time across an enclosed HUC-12 sub-watershed in Perkins County, Nebraska. The project involves satellite remote sensing combined with direct ground-truth measurements and will include irrigated and non-irrigated crops, as well as pastures, grasslands and CRP. Thirty-two percent of the land area is irrigated, 65% of which is planted in corn. The goal of the project is to slow the steady rate of groundwater declines by providing growers with timely information that will help them profitably manage their water allocations while supporting the URNRD in their efforts to manage groundwater levels. If funded, the grant will support direct costs of the project but will not support NEWBA organizational infrastructure or personnel costs, which are essential for NEWBA to promote and facilitate important projects like this. This project would not exist without NEWBA’s initiation and continuing support.