Demonstrating and enhancing risk assessment tools to determine efficiency and cost-effectiveness of innovative nutrient reduction strategies in the Mississippi Delta

Nutrient and sediment runoff from agricultural lands is associated with impairment of waterbodies in the Mississippi River Basin. There is a need to identify the most suitable practices and improve nutrient management plans to avoid, control or trap sediment and nutrients before they leave farm fields. The major objective of the project is to test and validate existing risk assessment tools and newly developed components on risk assessment tools, to demonstrate their accuracy in assessing the magnitude, extent and risk of soil and nutrient losses, and their utility in facilitating decision support for water quality and quantity improvement and cost-effectiveness of conservation practices at both field and watershed scales in the Mississippi Delta. The performance of the most representative quantitative and qualitative risk assessment tools used to help producers apply conservation practices, or evaluate other action plans to perform nutrient management, will be evaluated under similar scenario conditions in the Mississippi Delta. The evaluation of the group of risk assessment tools under similar scenario conditions has never been performed, and will generate important insights about the level of precision inherent to each individual tool.