Project Number: 5430-11120-009-30
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 01, 2012
End Date: Sep 30, 2013

Objective:
The purpose of this agreement is for ARS to support the implementation, enhancement, and debugging of the Wind Erosion Prediction System as NRCS implements WEPS in their field offices.

Approach:
ARS Tasks to be completed: 1. ARS “Support Related” Tasks to be performed on a continual basis during the term of this agreement: 1.1. Provide technical support to NRCS throughout the term of this Agreement, including addressing auto-generated bugs from the field or other problems with the WEPS model. 1.2 Keep the NRCS Responsible Person (currently Rick Fasching) informed of all changes to WEPS as well as progress and resolution on submitted issues. 1.3 Train the key NRCS personnel responsible for WEPS database development and maintenance. 1.4 Support NRCS in maintaining the content of WEPS databases, which include the Crop, Operation, Management and Barrier databases as well as the CLIGEN and WINDGEN records and supporting GIS files. ARS “Feature Request” Tasks to be completed: 2. Complete programming to operate WEPS in a “Confidence Interval” (CI) mode. 3. Continue multi-year field and laboratory research required for development of a method to model organic soils in WEPS. 4. Incorporate a "tapered stem" approach into WEPS to better simulate the distribution of stem mass by height for most crops. (May not be addressed pending a reevaluation of our Project Plan milestones) 5. Revise the WEPS management files to conform to an XML-based format and providing the ability to read that file format natively within the WEPS science code. (May not be addressed pending a reevaluation of our Project Plan milestones. This is concurrent with Task 4 above) 6. Discuss possible approaches to handle multi-harvested crops for “calibration” with NRCS.