Working Together to Create a Drainage Curriculum for the 21st Century
Drainage is a critical component of agricultural production in the Midwest. With more variable and extreme precipitation and the need to improve water quality the need for drainage expertise is increasing. However, the number of people receiving drainage education remains low. Developing a comprehensive curriculum to train students to meet the growing need for next generation drainage strategies is beyond the capacity of any one individual or institution.
To meet this challenge, our team of drainage researchers and educators from five institutions in four states is developing a modular online agricultural drainage curriculum. Once developed, the curriculum will be evaluated through a cycle of pilot testing and will be made available for universities and others who would benefit.
These modules will enable students at any university and drainage professionals to benefit from leading-edge drainage knowledge that is sought by employers.
Modules will include:
- Soil and Water Dynamics
- Drainage and Crop Production
- Subsurface Drainage Principles
- Drainage Design and Construction
- Design of Watershed-Scale Drainage Networks
- Impacts of Subsurface Drainage on Water Quality
- Conservation Drainage to Improve Drainage Water Quality
- Monitoring Drainage Systems and Conservation Drainage Practices
- Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Drainage Systems Modeling
- Drainage Law and Policy
- Partnerships for Drainage Infrastructure
Project Team
Purdue University
Jane Frankenberger - Project Director
Margaret Gitau
Iowa Soybean Association
Chris Hay
Iowa State University
Matt Helmers
Amy Kaleita
University of Illinois
Laura Christianson
Richard Cooke
Central State University
Subramania Sritharan
Project Evaluator:
Willie Burgess, Evaluation and Learning Center, Purdue University
Advisory Committee
Charlie Schafer, AgriDrain
Ivan Drossler, ISG
Gary Sands, University of Minnesota
Xinhua Jia, North Dakota State University
Larry Brown, The Ohio State University
This project collaborates with the regional Transforming Drainage network, https://transformingdrainage.org/
Project Activities and Timeline
