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Farm factors
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Cost
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Cost of changing practices or crops, including
removal of crop, new equipment required for
different crop, or loss of income and potential
mitigation by new income from new use.
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May be significant cost associated with removal of
perennial crop vs. annual crop; land surface
modifications.
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Crop type
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Crop classification such as grapes, vegetables,
grain and hay.
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Annual crops can be converted immediately whereas
perennial crops may not be.
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Farm practices
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Any practices such as cover cropping, tillage,
crop rotations, multi-cropping, seasonality of
crops. Includes practices of growing specific
crops.
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Some practices are associated with more or less
water use. Landowners may not have knowledge of
growing different crops or different types of
practices to use on the same crop.
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Irrigation type and practices
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Type of irrigation such as surface drip,
sub-surface drip, micro-sprinklers, sprinklers,
flood.
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Some irrigated types typically use more water
because they are less efficient, and also promote
non-beneficial ET through evaporation and
encouraging weed growth.
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Potential to decrease water use
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Relative — high, medium or low; annual ac-ft/yr of
consumptive use.
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Water use on deficit-irrigated, low water use
crops such as wine grapes is low compared to other
crops that have high water use.
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Time to implement
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Time to implement new practice and resultant time
to realize water savings.
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Some measures may be immediate whereas others,
like establishing or converting an irrigated
vineyard to a dry farmed vineyard, is on the order
of years.
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Site factors
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Accessibility
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Accessibility by people, animals, considering
factors such as private property lines and
terrain.
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Needed for evaluating suitability of recreation
areas.
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Suitability for farming
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Not all farmland is equally suited to being farmed
successfully.
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Currently farmed sites which are poorly suited to
being farmed due to slope, soil limitations, water
limitations, frost risk, etc. are the best
candidates to retire from production.
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Climate
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Annual precipitation and summer season GDD.
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Climate varies within the Basin, partly because of
distance from coast and elevation. Needed to
evaluate crop types, farming practices.
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Groundwater depletion
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Access to sufficient volumes of quality ground
water is not equal over the Basin.
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Some areas of the Basin particularly near the
boundaries may have shallower and/or poorer
quality water which limits their suitability for
farming.
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Habitat connectivity
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Use natural lands layers in GIS to determine
intersection/connectivity with natural and/or
protected or preserved lands.
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Consider for siting and developing habitat areas.
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Landscape — elevation and topography
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Percent slope, slope position, aspect, elevation.
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Needed to consider sites for solar and some
alternative crops or cropping practices.
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Proximity to jurisdictions/urban centers
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Using GIS proximity analysis; thresholds for
evaluation TBD.
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Consider for developing recreation areas.
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Recharge suitability
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Using Land IQ Recharge Suitability Index, which
incorporates SAGBI and subsurface parameters from
CVHM.
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Both surface and sub-surface factors need to be
considered to site areas of potential recharge —
infiltration rate and groundwater level.
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Soil type
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General texture categories such as loam, sandy
loam, clay loam, etc.
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Soil texture influences water infiltration and
water holding capacity.
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Storm/surface water availability
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Proximity to surface water features and/or
existing and potential irrigation infrastructure.
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Needed for siting recharge areas and possibly
other farming practices that could potentially use
water sources other than groundwater.
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Program/Basin factors
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Local/Basin tourism
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E.g. extended fallowing may affect aesthetic value
of local agriculture.
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Supports regional economy and direct farm sales.
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Permitting, regulatory and legal
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Permitting, Williamson Act, Ordinance, existing
easements, special land status.
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Effort and cost of permits.
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Potential for measurement
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On-site monitoring.
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For measures not verifiable by measuring
consumptive use.
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