Conservation Practice Effectiveness (CoPE) Database

The Conservation Practice Effectiveness Database compiles information on the effectiveness of a suite of conservation practices. This database presents a compilation of data on the effectiveness of innovative practices developed to treat contaminants in surface runoff and tile drainage water from agricultural landscapes. Traditional conservation practices such as no-tillage and conservation crop rotation are included in the database, as well as novel practices such as drainage water management, blind inlets, and denitrification bioreactors. This will be particularly useful to conservation planners seeking new approaches to water quality problems associated with dissolved constituents, such as nitrate or soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), and for researchers seeking to understand the circumstances in which such practices are most effective. Another novel feature of the database is the presentation of information on how individual conservation practices impact multiple water quality concerns. This information will be critical to enabling conservationists and policy makers to avoid (or at least be aware of) undesirable tradeoffs, whereby great efforts are made to improve water quality related to one resource concern (e.g., sediment) but exacerbate problems related to other concerns (e.g., nitrate or SRP). Finally, we note that the Conservation Practice Effectiveness Database can serve as a source of the soft data needed to calibrate simulation models assessing the potential water quality tradeoffs of conservation practices, including those that are still being developed. This database is updated and refined annually.

• Resource Title: 2019 Conservation Practice Effectiveness (CoPE) Database.

  File Name: Conservation_Practice_Effectiveness_2019.xlsx

  Resource Description: This version of the database was published in 2019.