Agroecological Transformations
Agricultural systems are complex; decisions at the farm or watershed scale often affect a range of outcomes, many of which create ecological and social challenges. Farmers and land managers will benefit from decision support tools that model agricultural management and the associated ecological outcomes such as yield, soil loss and nutrient loss. These tools can facilitate conversations and help imagine novel landscapes and possibilities. We are designing decision support tools that work at either the watershed scale (SmartScape) or farm scale (GrazeScape). Both tools use models to predict ecological outcomes as well as financial viability of various agricultural decisions that are site-specific. This allows farmers or land managers to visualize and analyze predicted outcomes of multiple scenarios and weigh the costs and benefits of multiple outcomes.