Team: 18
School: Jackson Middle School
Area of Science: Geology, and Engineering
Interim: Maximizing Farm Water To Negate Agricultural Drought in New Mexico
Team Number: 18
Team Members: Santiago Jose Herrera sanjo06546@gmail.com
Israel Leonardo Chirino sirut99@gmail.com
Sebastian Godin-Davis sevasgodin505@gmail.com
Teachers: Karen Glennon kglennon25@gmail.com
Sharee Lunsford lunsford@aps.edu
Sponsors: Patty Meyer consult1718@supercomputingchallenge.org
David Gensler DGensler@mrgcd.com
Area Of Science: Ecology, and Engineering
Definition of Problem:
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the next threat drought is always pushed to the back of our mind and forgotten until the next threat. Our focus question is based on how can we maximize farm water to negate threats of agricultural drought in New Mexico. We have verbalized with the MRGCD (Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District) who work on this quandary every day, we both concur that the most efficacious way to solve this is to refine the system we utilize to distribute and store our water. To automate the distribution of our agricultural water to our farms.
Problem Solution:
We have many solutions to our dilemma, but the problem to many of them is that it may take away the water from other things, like our forest, cities, dam, etc. Our main solution is to conserve our water, by utilizing less of it. We can do this in many ways as well, one is by automating our farms. Many organizations, like the MRGCD, already have the tools to implement this, but farmers shy from this conception celebrating the way they utilize their water is fine. In fact farmers over water their plants, and by utilizing more water they may even have less harvest. By utilizing less water we could store it, or utilize it for other things.
Progress to date:
We have a concrete understanding of the movement of the water throughout New Mexico. We have clear diagrams of how the water moves through dams, rivers, etc. We are also obtaining more information from the MRGCD website. For example, water measurements from the Rio Grande, and rainfall in the past 24 hrs. There are also graphs and tables which show rainfall and water usage. We also learned about some laws concerning water rights for an area of land. We can learn so much more about how we can implement solutions to agricultural drought.
Coding Plan:
We expect to code a model exhibiting how the automation of the farms ameliorates our water storage and harvest. We withal wanted to graph our results over an extensive duration, with this we expect to show the less utilization of water, and the higher yield of crops. To do this we hope to use NetLogo since its the language we are most comfortable with.
Expected Results:
We plan on having a more pellucid understanding of how the water in New Mexico is moved through dams, rivers, and other currents. We want to be well versed with laws restraining our utilization of water, and the exact amount we apportion or take from other states. Knowing this will avail us to understand why some water is peregrinated to a certain location even if it will avail us drastically to store or use this water in other areas. We hope to train our farmers to use a more automated form of agricultural practices to show how automation should not be shunned upon.
Works Cited
Australia, Animals. “The Biggest Cause of Global Warming That Scientists Need You to Know About.†Animals Australia, 8 Nov. 2018, https://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/lets-talk-about-climate-change.php?ua_s=GG&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrrXtBRCKARIsAMbU6bGJ6SZ5y7GwZmpTop3XFyDsh04igVm28iNcT2vQhfG91K_l0Ks-Oo4aAvObEALw_wcB.
Bureau of Reclamation. “Upper Colorado Region - Albuquerque Area Office.†Albuquerque Area Office | Upper Colorado Region, https://www.usbr.gov/uc/albuq/water/SanJuanChama/Reservoirs/elvado_indx.html.
“For a Kinder World.†Animals Australia, https://www.animalsaustralia.org/.
Gensler, David. Personal Interview. 19, Nov. 2019. MRGCD main offices 1931 2nd SW
Albuquerque, NM, 87012
“List of Rio Grande Dams and Diversions.†Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rio_Grande_dams_and_diversions#/media/File:Rio_Grande_dams_and_diversions.svg.
“New Mexico.†New Mexico | Drought.gov, 20 Sept. 2019, https://www.drought.gov/drought/states/new-mexico.
Nierenberg, Danielle, et al. “Meat's Large Water Footprint: Why Raising Livestock and Poultry for Meat Is so Resource-Intensive.†Food Tank, 27 Nov. 2016, https://foodtank.com/news/2013/12/why-meat-eats-resources/.
Office of the State Engineer.†Contacts - New Mexico Office of the State Engineer / Interstate Stream Commission, https://www.ose.state.nm.us/ProgramSupport/contacts.php.
Team Members:
Israel Chirino
Santiago Herrera
Sebastian Godin-Davis
Sponsoring Teacher: Karen Glennon