The Mississippi Alluvial Plain aquifers—An engine for economic activity

Abstract

U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2019–3003 February 2019 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) science supports groundwater resource management in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) region. The USGS Science and Decisions Center is working with the Water Availability and Use Science Program (WAUSP) to integrate economics into a sophisticated model of groundwater in the region. The model will quantify the status of the groundwater system and help researchers, stakeholders, and decision-makers understand and manage groundwater resources. Including economics in the model will let users consider the influence of groundwater levels on regional economics and the effects of economic factors on the demand for groundwater. Agriculture is a major source of economic activity in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) region. The MAP region consists of parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri (fig. 1). Irrigated acreage in the region accounted for 14 percent of total U.S. agriculture in 2015 (Dieter and others, 2018). Major crops grown in the region include corn, cotton, rice, and soybeans. Catfish is an important aquaculture commodity. Agriculture in the region relies on groundwater for irrigation. Approximately 65 percent of farmland in the region relies on groundwater from the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer (MRVAA) for irrigation and aquaculture (Kebede and others, 2014).1 Irrigated acreage in the region is on the rise; from 2007 to 2012, irrigated acreage in Arkansas and Mississippi increased by about 7.7 and 20.7 percent, respectively (U.S. Department of Agriculture-National