In the lead up to the 2011 official U.S. State Department decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline--running from the Alberta, Canada Tar Sands to the Gulf of Mexico--the Department held nine public meetings in Fall 2011 in the six U.S. states through which the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project would pass (the Department rejected the proposal; however, a new proposal is under consideration as of this writing). The transcripts of these public meetings are publicly accessible. Understanding the pipeline as a project of trans-national trade and the global circulation of petrochemicals--including global emissions of carbon dioxide--this paper hones in on one region within one U.S. state: the Nebraskan Sandhills, a cattle ranching region of grass-stabilized sand dunes and inter-dunal valleys stretching 20,000-square miles across the north-central part of the state, under which rests a vast hydrological network, including the largest freshwater aquifer in the world - the Ogallala Aquifer. This essay argues that we can read the Public Comments as a form of poetic expression, paying attention to the ways the State Department transcription process formatted the oral testimonies into an "official" and sanctioned public document -- instituting line-breaks and other syntactical procedures. Using the tools of literary-critical analysis, this paper makes a case that we can read the Comments as a form of documentary poetry - in the tradition of such American modernist poets as Charles Reznikoff, Muriel Rukeyser, and George Oppen - that explore ecological questions while experimenting with lyric structures. The Comments reveal competing environmental stakeholders' stances - on such topics as Prairie systems ecology and the neoliberal economics of private-public capital markets. In doing so, they subsequently express citizens' various understandings of themselves in relation to landscape, ecology, technology, and geo-politics.

This dissertation investigates three economic aspects of the climate change issue: optimal allocation of investment between adaptation and mitigation, impacts on a ground water dependent regional agricultural economy and effects on global food insecurity. This is done in three essays by applying mathematical programming. In the first essay, a modeling study is done on optimal temporal investment between climate change adaptation and mitigation considering their relative contributions to damage reduction and diversion of funds from consumption and other investments. To conduct this research, we extend the widely used Integrated Assessment Model?DICE (Dynamic Integrated Climate Economy) adding improved adaptation modeling. The model results suggest that the joint implementation of adaptation and mitigation is welfare improving with a greater immediate role for adaptation. In the second essay, the research focuses on the ground water dependent agricultural economy in the Texas High Plains Region. A regionally detailed dynamic land allocation model is developed and applied for studying interrelationships between limited natural resources (e.g. land and groundwater), climate change, bioenergy demands and agricultural production. We find out that the effect varies regionally across hydrologically heterogeneous regions. Also, water availability has a substantial impact on feedstock mix. In terms of biofuel feedstock production, the model results show that limited water resource cannot sustain expanded corn-based ethanol production in the future. In the third essay, a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is applied in an attempt to study potential impacts of climate change on global food insecurity. Our results show that climate change alters the number of food insecure people in a regionally different fashion over time. In general, the largest increase of additional food insecure population relative to the reference case (no climate change) is found in Africa and South Asia, while most of developed countries will benefit from climate change with a reduced proportion of food insecure population. In general, climate change affects world agricultural production and food security. Integrated adaptation and mitigation strategy is more effective in reducing climate change damages. However, there are synergies/trade-offs between these two options, particularly in regions with limited natural resources.

Masters of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jeffrey M. Peterson / The expansion of the biofuels industry, world demand, and various other factors are having a historic impact on the price of grains. These high prices have been creating a large increase in production of many water intensive crops such as corn. As corn is among the most input-intensive crops, this extra production has raised concerns about environmental impacts and pressures on water resources in particular. While water quality has been a longstanding concern in the cornbelt, much of the new production is in nontraditional corn regions including the southeast, the High Plains, and the western states. In these areas, there is mounting concern over depletion of already stressed water supplies. In the High Plains, the chief water source is the Ogallala aquifer, one of the largest water resources in the world that underlies eight states from South Dakota to Texas. The Ogallala has enabled many agricultural industries, such as irrigated crops, cattle feeding, and meat processing, to establish themselves in areas that would not be possible otherwise. A consequence is that the economy of this region has become dependent on groundwater availability. Continued overdrafts of the aquifer have caused a long-term drop in water levels and some areas have now reached effective depletion. This thesis seeks to estimate the impact of the rising commodity prices on groundwater consumption and cropping patterns in the Kansas portion of the Ogallala. The economy of this region is particularly dependent on water and irrigated crops, with more than 3 million head of feeder cattle and irrigated crop revenues exceeding $600 million annually. Sheridan (northwestern Kansas), Seward (southwestern Kansas), and Scott (west central Kansas) counties have been selected as representative case study regions. These counties have a wide range of aquifer levels with Seward having an abundant supply, Sheridan an intermediate supply, and Scott nearing effective depletion. Cropping patterns in these counties are typical of the western Kansas region, with most irrigated acreage being planted to corn and with dominant nonirrigated rotations of wheat-fallow and wheat-sorghum-fallow. A Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) model was developed and calibrated to land- and water-use data in the case counties for a base period of 1999-2003. The PMP approach produces a constrained nonlinear optimization model that mimics the land- and water- allocation decision facing producers each year. The choice variables in the model are the acreages planted to each of the major crops and the water use by crop. The model was run for each of the case counties. The PMP calibration procedure ensures that the model solutions fall within a small tolerance of the base period observations. Once calibrated, the models were executed to simulate the impacts of the emerging energy demand for crops over a 60-year period. After the baseline projections were found, the model was then run under increased crop prices that reflect the higher prices observed in 2006 and after. The thesis found that under the high price scenario, both irrigated crop production and water application per acre increased significantly during the early years of the simulated period in all modeled counties. The size of the increases depended on the amount of original water available in each county. The increases generally diminished in magnitude toward the end of the simulation period, but led to smaller ending levels of saturated thickness as compared to the base price in all counties. Finally, in two of the three counties, it was observed that initial increases in irrigated crop acres and water application forces a decline in the aquifer such that less water can be applied per acre in the final years of the simulation. This suggests that high commodity prices forces a higher emphasis on early production levels than later production levels. Additionally, the higher prices have a significant effect on the rate of decline of the Ogallala aquifer.

Master of Science / Department of Agronomy / Scott A. Staggenborg / Irrigated cropping systems on the High Plains are dominated by water intensive continuous corn (Zea mays L.) production, which along with other factors has caused a decline in the Ogallala aquifer. Potentially demand for water from the aquifer could be decreased by including drought tolerant crops, like grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), in the cropping systems. This study calibrated the CERES-Maize, CERES-Sorghum, and CROPGRO-Cotton models for the High Plains and studied the simulated effects of different irrigation amounts and initial soil water contents on corn, cotton, and grain sorghum. Input files for calibration were created from irrigated and dryland research plots across Kansas. Information was collected on: soil physical properties, dry matter, leaf area, initial and final soil water content, management, and weather. CERES-Maize simulated grain yield, kernel number, ear number, and seed weight across the locations with root mean square errors (RMSE) of 2891 kg ha-1, 1283 kernels m-2, 1.6 ears m-2, and 38.02 mg kernel-1, respectively. CERES-Sorghum simulated grain yield, kernel number, head number, and seed weight with RMSEs of 2150 kg ha-1, 5755 kernels m-2, 0.13 heads m-2, and 4.51 mg kernel-1. CROPGRO-Cotton simulated lint yield and boll number with RMSEs of 487 kg ha-1 and 25.97 bolls m-2. Simulations were also conducted with CERES-Maize, CERES-Sorghum, and CROPGRO-Cotton to evaluate the effects of irrigation amounts and initial soil water content on yield, evapotranspiration (ET), water use efficiency (WUE), available soil water at maturity, and gross income per hectare. Simulations used weather data from Garden City, KS from 1961 to 1999. Irrigation amounts were different for all variables for corn and grain sorghum. For cotton, yield, WUE, soil water, and gross income were not different between the top two irrigation amounts. For corn and grain sorghum, initial soil water content was only different at 50% plant available water. Initial soil water had no affect on cotton, except for ET at 50%. Simulations showed that cotton yields are similar at lower irrigation. Also, cropping systems that include cotton have the potential to reduce overall irrigation demand on the Ogallala aquifer, potentially prolonging the life of the aquifer.

Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / David R. Steward / Accurate modeling of the High Plains Aquifer depends on the availability of good data that represents and quantities properties and processes occurring within the aquifer. Thanks to many previous studies there is a wealth of good data available for the High Plains Aquifer but one key component, groundwater-surface water interaction locations and rates, is generally missing. Without these values accurate modeling of the High Plains Aquifer is very difficult to achieve. This thesis presents methods for simplifying the modeling of the High Plains Aquifer using a sloping base method and then applying mathematical optimization techniques to locate and quantify points of groundwater-surface water interaction. The High Plains Aquifer has a base that slopes gently from west to east and is approximated using a one-dimensional stepping base model. The model was run under steady-state predevelopment conditions using readily available GIS data representing aquifer properties such as hydraulic conductivity, bedrock elevation, recharge, and the predevelopment water level. The Levenberg-Marquardt and particle swarm algorithms were implemented to minimize error in the model. The algorithms reduced model error by finding locations in the aquifer of potential groundwater-surface water interaction and then determining the rate of groundwater to surface water exchange at those points that allowed for the best match between the measured predevelopment water level and the simulated water level. Results from the model indicate that groundwater-surface water interaction plays an important role in the overall water balance in the High Plains Aquifer. Findings from the model show strong groundwater-surface water interaction occurring in the northern basin of the aquifer where the water table is relatively shallow and there are many surface water features. In the central and southern basins the interaction is primarily limited to river valleys. Most rivers have baseflow that is a net sink from groundwater.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agronomy / P.V. Vara Prasad / Agriculture is the largest (90%) consumer of all fresh water in the world. The consumptive use of water by vegetation represented by the process evapotranspiration (ET) has a vital role in the dynamics of water, carbon and energy fluxes of the biosphere. Consequently, mapping ET is essential for making water a sustainable resource and also for monitoring ecosystem response to water stress and changing climate. Over the past three decades, numerous thermal remote sensing based ET mapping algorithms were developed and these have brought a significant theoretical and technical advancement in the spatial modeling of ET. Though these algorithms provided a robust, economical, and efficient tool for ET estimations at field and regional scales, yet the uncertainties in flux estimations were large, making evaluation a difficult task. The main objective of this study was to evaluate and improve the performance of widely used remote sensing based energy balance models, namely: the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL), Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution and with Internalized Calibration (METRIC), and Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS). Data used in this study was collected as part of a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional field campaign BEAREX (Bushland Evapotranspiration and Agricultural Remote Sensing Experiment) that was conducted during 2007 and 2008 summer cropping seasons at the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory (CPRL) in Bushland, Texas. Seventeen high resolution remote sensing images taken from multispectral sensors onboard aircraft and field measurements of the agro-meteorological variables from the campaign were used for model evaluation and improvement. Overall relative error measured in terms of mean absolute percent difference (MAPD) for instantaneous ET (mm h[superscript]-[superscript]1) were 22.7%, 23.2%, and 12.6% for SEBAL, METRIC, and SEBS, respectively. SEBAL and METRIC performances for irrigated fields representing higher ET with limited or no water stress and complete ground cover surfaces were markedly better than that for dryland fields representing lesser ET and greater soil water deficits with sparser vegetation cover. SEBS algorithm performed equally well for both irrigated and dryland conditions but required accurate air temperature data. Overall, this study provides new insights into the performance of three widely used thermal remote sensing based algorithms for estimating ET and proposed modifications to improve the accuracy of estimated ET for efficient management of water resources.

From the Proceedings of the 1971 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 22-23, 1971, Tempe, Arizona / The southern bed of the ogallala aquifer is hydrologically isolated from all outside areas of recharge, requiring local precipitation for all natural recharge. Current withdrawals are so much greater than natural recharge that it appears that artificial recharge affords the only means of establishing at least a pseudo-balance. A number of observation wells were drilled at Texas Tech University, and subsequently capped until recharge water became available. The initial recharge was 2.5 af over 12 days, at a rate of 120 gpm for about the first day, after which 60 gpm was relatively constant. Approximately 1 month later, 1.2 af were recharged over 3 days at rates ranging over 140-90 gpm. It became evident that a cavity was present at the bottom of the hole being recharged. On a later recharge occasion, the cavity seemed to have enlarged. During a period of 2 years more than 28 af of surface runoff water have been recharged through the shallow hole with increases in recharge rates for each subsequent recharge period. The nature of this phenomenon and the cavities are not understood. This may represent the long sought after answer to recharge of the aquifer, but much more extensive research needs to be done.