USING CHORDS, DATAX, AND AGENT BASED MODELING TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY

Agricultural regions across the U.S. face challenges such as low agricultural prices, high energy and fertilizer costs, pollution from agricultural runoff and waste, and depleting water supplies that threaten the very existence of local communities. Many of these regions also have large renewable energy resources. For these mainly Small Town and Rural (STAR) communities, adaptation pathways to a resilient future are unclear and delayed action is reducing possible alternatives and increasing eventual adaptation costs. It is also increasing negative associated consequences on, for example, global food security. The FEWtures project will develop a decision-support system based on engineering and economic research and stakeholder-driven analysis of conditions needed for system change. The decision-support system will be used to evaluate the viability of new, integrated, renewable-energy-powered solutions. The solutions considered will leverage existing and emerging technologies in water treatment, ammonia synthesis, and electric microgrid planning. Goals include increasing usable water resource availability (including maintaining viability of the Ogallala aquifer), mitigating agricultural runoff and waste, and promoting resilience in agricultural systems, while diversifying and stimulating STAR-community economies. The decision support system will be developed and tested in the Central Arkansas River Basin (CARB), which includes the arid agricultural center of the Arkansas River basin and covers parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. In this talk, aspects of the study involving multi-data, multi-model development and stakeholder communication using the new CHORDS data gateway, DataX science gateway,and agent-based modeling will be explored. In this effort, the study authors are working with the NSF IS-GEO (Intelligent Systems for the Geosciences) RCN (Research Coordination Network) to explore advanced computer methods for science and communication.