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Analyzing the Increase in Center Pivot Irrigation Systems in Custer County, Nebraska USA from 2003 to 2010

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Analyzing the Increase in Center Pivot Irrigation Systems in Custer County, Nebraska USA from 2003 to 2010 Analyzing the Increase in Center Pivot Irrigation Systems in Custer County, Nebraska USA from 2003 to 2010 Seth N. Millington Department of Resource Analysis, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Winona MN 55987 Keywords: Aerial Imagery, Center Pivot Irrigation Systems, GIS analysis, Agriculture, Land use, Ogallala Aquifer Abstract This study examined land use change on cropland, focusing on the increase in center pivot irrigation systems in Custer County, Nebraska USA from 2003 to 2010. Center pivot Irrigation systems permit farmers to irrigate crops with a significant reduction of the labor required by traditional methods such as flood irrigation. In past decades, center pivot use has increased dramatically throughout the United States. Custer County depends heavily on the Ogallala Aquifer as its water source for irrigation. Over the years, the Ogallala Aquifer has been depleting faster than it recharges (Peters, 2012). Technology has vastly improved irrigation systems to become more efficient with water use, although due to the rapid installation and growth of systems, water use is still a growing issue. This study uses aerial photo-interpreted (digitized) land cover imagery from 2003 and 2010 to detect center pivot systems and identify areas of increased center pivot growth at the county and township level. Hotspot analyses were also conducted to statistically identify areas having high or low concentrations of center pivot irrigation growth. Introduction Since the early 1950’s, irrigated cropland acreage via center pivot irrigation systems has steadily increased. Center pivot irrigation systems (Figures 1 and 2) have been seen as a drastic improvement over traditional irrigation methods and have been hailed as the greatest mechanical innovation in agriculture since the replacement of draft animals by the tractor (Ganzel, 1974). Figure 1. Center pivot irrigation system. Custer County’s, Nebraska, main Results of decades of water source of water utilized for irrigation is the dependence on the Ogallala Aquifer has Ogallala Aquifer which extends northward become a threat to local communities. In from western Texas to South Dakota and particular, farmers are at risk of losing occupies much of the High Plains of the their livelihood. According to Plummer United States (Figure 3). The entire (2013), the expansive aquifer delivers aquifer encompasses roughly 174,000 freshwater for roughly one-fifth of the square miles – lying beneath eight states. ________________________________________________________________________ Millington, Seth. 2015. Analyzing the Increase in Center Pivot Irrigation Systems in Custer County, Nebraska USA from 2003 to 2010. Volume 17. Papers in Resource Analysis. 15 pp. Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota University Central Services Press. Winona, MN. Retrieved (date) from http://www.gis.smumn.edu wheat, corn, cattle, and cotton in the crop yields and quickly drained the United States. Ogallala Aquifer. Due to the size of the Ogallala, the High Plains is the leading irrigation area in the Western Hemisphere. Overall, 5.5 million hectares (nearly 13.6 million acres) are irrigated in the Ogallala region. The leading state irrigating from the Ogallala is Nebraska (46%), followed by Texas (30%) and Kansas (14%) (Johnson, Thompson, Giri, and NewKirk, 2011). Nebraska is the fourth largest user of groundwater, trailing only California, Figure 2. Center pivot irrigation systems as seen Texas and Arkansas (Johnson et al.). from the air above. In Nebraska, center pivots constitute nearly 98% of the acres irrigated by sprinklers and an estimated 55,000 systems are in use (Johnson et al., 2011). Use of center pivot irrigation has seen a steady increase in numbers and in size as technology has improved. As concerns over the Ogallala Aquifer have risen in recent years, alternate farming methods are being adapted. Center pivots can also be a more efficient means of irrigating. By using low pressure center pivot systems (under 30 psi), energy and efficiency of water application can be greatly enhanced. Present technology allows landowners to control a center pivot’s operation with a tablet, a computer or smartphone. Soil moisture sensors, GPS, and GIS can help Figure 3.The Ogallala Aquifer’s spatial extent determine how and when to irrigate covering areas from northern Texas to South resourcefully. Water regulations have been Dakota. proposed in some states, while some growers are moving to dry land farming The increase in water use for practices-growing crops that do not require irrigation in this area has been linked to irrigation. the aquifers decline, partly due to the Other factors contributing to the advent of the center pivot. According to aquifer depletion include industry (non- Brown (2014), by the early eighties farming), municipal water needs and the (1980s), center-pivot irrigation devices nature of the Ogallala itself. Buried ten were in wide-ranging use. This large million years ago, this fossil water is–in ground-covering sprinkler system allowed many places—not recharged by farmers to water crops more regularly and precipitation or surface water (Brown, effectively. Both significantly increased 3 2014). Another factor recently discovered was the Ogallala’s sensitivity to global warming. Much of the land above and the subterranean areas beneath the Ogallala Aquifer is subject to climate extremes such as the current drought impacting the Great Plains from Texas through Kansas and into the Dakotas (Pore, 2006). Due to the complexity and interconnectivity between factors such as Figure 5. Custer County study area, located in the global warming, aquifer geology and heart of Nebraska. hydrology, this project did not make an allowance for them. The purpose of this Methodology project was to use aerial imagery from 2003 and 2010 to analyze land use Data Collection Process expansion of center pivot irrigation systems. This research utilized a combination of aerial imagery, Nebraska state, county and Study Area township data to accurately digitize center pivot irrigation systems. A basic outline of Custer County (Figure 4 and 5) is located the process consisted of several steps in the central portion of Nebraska. (Figure 6). Founded in 1877, it is Nebraska’s second largest county, measuring 2,576 square miles. The county has no open bodies of water (lakes or reservoirs). Figure 4. Custer County Location within the State Figure 6. Flow chart describing the research of Nebraska. process for center pivot land use change. First, two years of aerial imagery However, due to the county’s were obtained for comparison. State, fertile valleys, rivers and immense county, and township shapefiles were tablelands, it is an ideal area to raise crops. clipped to the spatial extent of Custer Custer County was also chosen for this County. Creating shapefiles for two study due to its central location relative to sample years allowed for editing and the Ogallala Aquifer and overall storing center pivot data. Following this, agricultural growth during the time period digitizing center pivot systems allowed for being examined. an accurate land use change assessment. 4 Acquisition of Shapefiles To begin the digital feature development of center pivot irrigation systems (Figure Requisite datasets were acquired from 7), the following parameters were created several sources. The Nebraska state and to assist in identifying a center pivot county shapefiles were obtained from the system. Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. The Custer County township map was retrieved from the Department of the Interior - Bureau of Land Management (BLM) geocommunicator website. ESRI’s version of ArcMap and ArcCatalog 10.2 were used for data management and analysis. The North American Datum (NAD) 1983 Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 14N projection was utilized for data within this research. Figure 7. Center pivot irrigation systems and the circles they create. Acquisition and Handling of Aerial Photography a. Observe a center pivot system’s tell-tale “crop circle” pattern. The 2003 and 2010 aerial imagery were b. Observe a center pivot system’s originally developed by the U.S. Farm pivot, irrigation arm and/or wheel Service Agency. The images were marks. vertically and horizontally rectified by the c. Toggling between scale settings in USGS and made available through the Arc Map’s editor toolbar. 1:50000 Nebraska DNR website. Both images are was the default scale (Figure 8). natural color, taken in the spring or summer with one meter resolutions. Data Preparation A file geodatabase was created to store the data for the study. The state of Nebraska’s county and Custer County’s township shapefiles were added as well as the 2003 Figure 8. View at a scale of 50,000:1 (in meters). and 2010 imagery. Both images were in the form of a .sid file. New polygon Using ArcGIS software, imagery shapefile datasets for 2003 and 2010 were was used to identify and create center created within the geodatabase. All pivot features using the Circle and Auto features were then clipped to Custer Complete Polygon tool (Figure 9). The County. Reshape Feature tool was also necessary as some areas identified as center pivots Spatial Analysis were not perfect circles. After all center pivots were identified, a new attribute field Digitizing Center Pivots was created to house the total acreage of 5 each digitized center pivot system. Next, Statistical Analysis total acreage of each circle was calculated by using the calculate geometry option First, a paired sample t-test was used within the attribute table. between the counts of irrigation units by township for the two year- 2003 and 2010 (Appendix A), and a second paired sample t-test for a comparison of irrigated acreage for the same two years (Appendix B). The null hypothesis for both tests consisted of the number of irrigation units and total acreage was the same between the years sampled. Figure 9. Digitizing center pivot “crop circles” Results and Discussion were completed using Circle and Auto Complete Polygons construction tools within ArcGIS Editor. Overlay Analysis for 2003 and 2010 This procedure was followed for both years sampled – 2003 and 2010.
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