scholarly journals Agriculture, irrigation, and drainage on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, California: Unified perspective on hydrogeology, geochemistry and management

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.N. Narasimhan ◽  
N.W.T. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
San Joaquin Valley ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Agriculture Irrigation

scholarly journals Policy Innovation and Governance for Irrigation Sustainability in the Arid, Saline San Joaquin River Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4733
Author(s):  
Nigel W. T. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
San Joaquin Valley ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Salt Load ◽  
San Joaquin River

This paper provides a chronology and overview of events and policy initiatives aimed at addressing irrigation sustainability issues in the San Joaquin River Basin (SJRB) of California. Although the SJRB was selected in this case study, many of the same resource management issues are being played out in arid, agricultural regions around the world. The first part of this paper provides an introduction to some of the early issues impacting the expansion of irrigated agriculture primarily on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and the policy and capital investments that were used to address salinity impairments to the use of the San Joaquin River (SJR) as an irrigation water supply. Irrigated agriculture requires large quantities of water if it is to be sustained, as well as supply water of adequate quality for the crop being grown. The second part of the paper addresses these supply issues and a period of excessive groundwater pumping that resulted in widespread land subsidence. A joint federal and state policy response that resulted in the facilities to import Delta water provided a remedy that lasted almost 50 years until the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 was passed in the legislature to address a recurrence of the same issue. The paper describes the current state of basin-scale simulation modeling that many areas, including California, are using to craft a future sustainable groundwater resource management policy. The third section of the paper deals with unique water quality issues that arose in connection with the selenium crisis at Kesterson Reservoir and the significant threats to irrigation sustainability on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that followed. The eventual policy response to this crisis was incremental, spanning two decades of University of California-led research programs focused on finding permanent solutions to the salt and selenium contamination problems constraining irrigated agriculture, primarily on the west side. Arid-zone agricultural drainage-induced water quality problems are becoming more ubiquitous worldwide. One policy approach that found traction in California is an innovative variant on the traditional Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) approach to salinity regulation, which has features in common with a scheme in Australia’s Hunter River Basin. The paper describes the real-time salinity management (RTSM) concept, which is geared to improving coordination of west side agricultural and wetland exports of salt load with east side tributary reservoir release flows to improve compliance with river salinity objectives. RTSM is a concept that requires access to continuous flow and electrical conductivity data from sensor networks located along the San Joaquin River and its major tributaries and a simulation model-based decision support designed to make salt load assimilative capacity forecasts. Web-based information dissemination and data sharing innovations are described with an emphasis on experience with stakeholder engagement and participation. The last decade has seen wide-scale, global deployment of similar technologies for enhancing irrigation agriculture productivity and protecting environmental resources.

Crop Residues in San Joaquin Valley Row Crop Systems

HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 494d-494
Author(s):  
J.P. Mitchell ◽  
T.K. Hartz ◽  
G.S. Pettygrove ◽  
D.S. Munk ◽  
D.M. May
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Dry Matter ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
San Joaquin Valley ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Organic Matter Recycling ◽  
Agricultural Regions

The West Side of California's San Joaquin Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions of the world. The leading crops of this region include processing tomatoes, cotton, onions, garlic, cantaloupes, and lettuce, which are grown on over 570,000 acres annually. During the past 30 years, land use patterns on the West Side have changed considerably. More than 60% of the acreage in this area was typically planted to wheat, barley, and safflower in 1965, whereas in 1994 these crops were grown on 7% of the area. The intensification in the production of high value crops has led to fewer additions of organic matter to the soil and more aggressive tillage operations. In 1996–97, we quantified the amount and composition of postharvest crop residues that are returned to the soil in typical West Side rotations. The highest amount of crop residues resulted from corn stubble following grain harvest (10,300 lb dry matter per acre) and the lowest amounts resulted from onions and garlic, with 517 and 700 lb dry matter per acre, respectively. These data demonstrate the large range of organic matter recycling that results from varous intensive cropping strategies in this region.

scholarly journals La datation du choeur de l’église de Vaucelles reproduit en plan par Villard de Honnecourt

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-417
Author(s):  
Laurence Terrier Aliferis
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Villard De Honnecourt ◽  
The Church

Abstract The ruined Cistercian church of Vaucelles is known only by a few preserved fragments and a plan of the choir reproduced by Villard of Honnecourt. Historical sources provide three key dates: 1190 (start of construction), 1215 (entry into the new church), 1235 (date of the dedication). From the nineteenth century until now, it was considered that the foundations were laid in 1190 and that the construction started on the west side of the church. In 1216, the nave would have been completed, and the choir would have been built between 1216 and 1235. Consultation of the historical sources and examination of the historiographic record changes this established chronology of the site. In fact, the construction proceeded from east to west. The choir reproduced in 1216 or shortly before by Villard de Honnecourt presents the building as it then appeared, with the eastern part of the building totally completed.

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