TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrated Agricultural Practices and Engineering Technologies Enhance Synergies of Food-Energy-Water Systems in Corn Belt Watersheds
AU - Li, Shaobin
AU - Cai, Ximing
AU - Niroula, Sundar
AU - Wallington, Kevin
AU - Gramig, Benjamin M.
AU - Cusick, Roland D.
AU - Singh, Vijay
AU - McIsaac, Gregory
AU - Oh, Seojeong
AU - Kurambhatti, Chinmay
AU - Emaminejad, Seyed Aryan
AU - John, Steve
N1 - This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation under the Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) (award number 1739788). We sincerely thank industrial, governmental, and agricultural stakeholders for providing valuable information on FEW systems of the testbed watershed. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.
PY - 2023/6/27
Y1 - 2023/6/27
N2 - Interconnected food, energy, water systems (FEWS) require systems level understanding to design efficient and effective management strategies and policies that address potentially competing challenges of production and environmental quality. Adoption of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) can reduce nonpoint source phosphorus (P) loads, but there are also opportunities to recover P from point sources, which could also reduce demand for mineral P fertilizer derived from declining geologic reserves. Here, we apply the Integrated Technology-Environment-Economics Model to investigate the consequences of watershed-scale portfolios of agricultural BMPs and environmental and biological technologies (EBTs) for co-benefits of FEWS in Corn Belt watersheds. Via a pilot study with a representative agro-industrial watershed with high P and nitrogen discharge, we show achieving the nutrient reduction goals in the watershed; BMP-only portfolios require extensive and costly land-use change (19% of agricultural land) to perennial energy grasses, while portfolios combining BMPs and EBTs can improve water quality while recovering P from corn biorefineries and wastewater streams with only 4% agricultural land-use change. The potential amount of P recovered from EBTs is estimated as 2 times as much as the agronomic P requirement in the watershed, showing the promise of the P circular economy. These findings inform solution development based on the combination of agricultural BMPs and EBTs for the cobenefits of FEWS in Corn Belt watersheds.
AB - Interconnected food, energy, water systems (FEWS) require systems level understanding to design efficient and effective management strategies and policies that address potentially competing challenges of production and environmental quality. Adoption of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) can reduce nonpoint source phosphorus (P) loads, but there are also opportunities to recover P from point sources, which could also reduce demand for mineral P fertilizer derived from declining geologic reserves. Here, we apply the Integrated Technology-Environment-Economics Model to investigate the consequences of watershed-scale portfolios of agricultural BMPs and environmental and biological technologies (EBTs) for co-benefits of FEWS in Corn Belt watersheds. Via a pilot study with a representative agro-industrial watershed with high P and nitrogen discharge, we show achieving the nutrient reduction goals in the watershed; BMP-only portfolios require extensive and costly land-use change (19% of agricultural land) to perennial energy grasses, while portfolios combining BMPs and EBTs can improve water quality while recovering P from corn biorefineries and wastewater streams with only 4% agricultural land-use change. The potential amount of P recovered from EBTs is estimated as 2 times as much as the agronomic P requirement in the watershed, showing the promise of the P circular economy. These findings inform solution development based on the combination of agricultural BMPs and EBTs for the cobenefits of FEWS in Corn Belt watersheds.
KW - Environmental benefit
KW - FEW nexus
KW - Phosphorus recovery
KW - Trade-offs and synergies
KW - Watershed approach
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.3c02055
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.3c02055
M3 - Article
C2 - 37256737
AN - SCOPUS:85163999798
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 57
SP - 9194
EP - 9203
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 25
ER -