science

Water farming

Water farming is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Water farming rather than just read about it. In short: Water farming is a practice in Florida where farmers are paid to keep stormwater on their properties and receive water from other areas to store on their properties. This practice is also known as Dispersed Water Management by the South Florida Water Management District, and as Water Farcing by critics.

Key takeaways

Water farming belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Water farming to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Water farming from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Water farming is a practice in Florida where farmers are paid to keep stormwater on their properties and receive water from other areas to store on their properties. This practice is also known as Dispersed Water Management by the South Florida Water Management District, and as Water Farcing by critics.

History In 2005, the South Florida Water Management District created a new program for water farming called the "Dispersed Water Management Program" with eight farmers. The program uses shallow-water storage on existing lands to hold water.

Lobbying In 2014, Alico dispatched lobbyists to the Florida legislature to try to get funding for the project. When asked about this effort, Alico spokeswoman Sarah Bascom is reported to have said that Alico was just helping a state agency in need by lobbying for the SFWMD who was not permitted by law to lobby. Prior to this effort, funding was provided by the South Florida Water Management District. Though $31.8 million was appropriated for the project in the 2015 legislative session, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the funding. The largest contract entered into by the South Florida Water Management District -- for 11 years and $122 million -- went to Alico, which would use approximately 35,192 acres of ranchland for water farming. The return on the investment for Florida taxpayers for $122 million invested is about a 1.5-inch reduction in the Lake Okeechobee water level.

Controversy Much controversy surrounds the use of water farms due to their cost and hard to quantify benefit. A state audit found that the cost of a water farm on public land would be approximately $25 per million gallons, while the cost using privately owned land can be as high as $418 per million gallons. As such, the audit makes clear that the programs costs tens of millions of dollars more than it should.

Contract Termination Another concern about the contracts by the South Florida Water Management District with the water farmers is the District is paying for capital improvements to the land owned by the water farmers, but the water farmers can terminate the contract at will. This could make the investment by the District a very poor one if the water farmers decide to plant as solutions to citrus greening emerge.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Water farming

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Water farming claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Water farming before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Water farming ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Water farming

In research: Water farming appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Water farming in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Water farming is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Environmental mitigation, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Water farming outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Water farming in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Water farming means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Water farming out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Water farming in simple terms?

Why does Water farming matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Water farming?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Water farming.