Dashboard for Agricultural Water Use and Nutrient Management—A Predictive Decision Support System to Improve Crop Production in a Changing Climate

Xin Zhong Liang, Drew Gower, Jennifer A. Kennedy, Melissa Kenney, Michael C. Maddox, Michael Gerst, Guillermo Balboa, Talon Becker, Ximing Cai, Roger Elmore, Wei Gao, Yufeng He, Kang Liang, Shane Lotton, Leena Malayil, Megan L. Matthews, Alison M. Meadow, Christopher M.U. Neale, Greg Newman, Amy Rebecca SapkotaSanghoon Shin, Jonathan Straube, Chao Sun, You Wu, Yun Yang, Xuesong Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Climate change presents huge challenges to the already-complex decisions faced by U.S. agricultural producers, as seasonal weather patterns increasingly deviate from historical tendencies. Under USDA funding, a transdisciplinary team of researchers, extension experts, educators, and stakeholders is developing a climate decision support Dashboard for Agricultural Water use and Nutrient management (DAWN) to provide Corn Belt farmers with better predictive information. DAWN’s goal is to provide credible, usable information to support decisions by creating infrastructure to make subseasonal-to-seasonal forecasts accessible. DAWN uses an integrated approach to 1) engage stakeholders to coproduce a decision support and information delivery system; 2) build a coupled modeling system to represent and transfer holistic systems knowledge into effective tools; 3) produce reliable forecasts to help stakeholders optimize crop productivity and environmental quality; and 4) integrate research and extension into experiential, transdisciplinary education. This article presents DAWN’s framework for integrating climate–agriculture research, extension, and education to bridge science and service. We also present key challenges to the creation and delivery of decision support, specifically in infrastructure development, coproduction and trust building with stakeholders, product design, effective communication, and moving tools toward use.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)E432-E441
JournalBulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Volume105
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2024
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Agriculture
  • Climate prediction
  • Climate services
  • Communications/ decision making
  • Decision support
  • Water resources

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atmospheric Science

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