Water and Drought
BMPs for Turfgrass Water Conservation
Turfgrass managers are increasingly confronted with implementation of site-specific water conservation practices — and water will be the No. 1 problem confronting the turf industry in the future. For the turf industry to successfully address the water conservation issue, they must have a plan. The Best Management Practices (BMPs) concept and terminology evolved out of the Clean Water Quality Act. The first comprehensive overall water conservation model or plan was developed in 2004-2005 by the UGA Crop and Soil Science Department by applying BMPS concepts and terminology to water conservation/use-efficiency. The concept involves how to use the information to make irrigation system design changes and then changes in irrigation scheduling on a frequent basis to insure efficient use of water. The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology adopted this model and terminology as the model to promote so that all have a single model and terminology to apply to this issue. CAST publications are widely used by government officials for background information on various environmental issues and how to address them. (2006)
Sources
| Name | Department | |
| Robert M. Carrow | rcarrow@griffin.uga.edu | Crop and Soil Sciences |
| Clint Waltz | cwaltz@uga.edu | Crop and Soil Sciences |