Water Quality Workshop
People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
Activity: PEWI – People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
PEWI Website: http://www.nrem.iastate.edu/pewi
PEWI Tool: http://www.nrem.iastate.edu/pewi/app
Now more than ever water quality is a top priority for Iowans. We need practical ways of achieving
water quality goals; yet trying new things is costly. To help overcome this hurdle, we’ve created an
interactive, online tool that allows users to play with agricultural land use and management options in
a risk-free space. The tool is called PEWI—short for People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration—and
is available for free at the web address above. In addition to addressing water quality and crop yield,
PEWI also helps users balance tradeoffs with soil health, wildlife, and recreational opportunities.
This workshop consists of three parts. In Part I, the facilitators will introduce PEWI. In Part II, you will
participate by using PEWI in a guided activity. Part III concludes with a roundtable discussion.
Part I: PEWI Introduction
This section includes a presentation to help you understand the basics of the PEWI tool and how to use
it. At the end of the presentation, you will have time for questions before moving on to the guided
activity.
During the presentation, we will introduce four key terms: watershed, land use, ecosystem services,
and tradeoffs. Below, write definitions for each of these terms in your own words.
Watershed:
Land use:
Ecosystem services:
Tradeoffs:
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Water Quality Workshop
People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
Part II: PEWI Hands-on – Four Basic Scenarios
Part IIa: Explore the tradeoff effects of four different land uses on your own: (1) Conventional Corn, (2)
Conservation Corn, (3) Hay, and (4) Prairie. Ask questions if you get stuck – we’re here to help!
Listen to the facilitator for instructions. The key is to change the entire watershed to a single land use,
starting with Conventional Corn. For Conventional Corn, make sure to record the four selected PEWI
results in the table below (i-iv) before moving on to the second land use, and so on.
Hints
a) To select a land use: Find the “Land Use” pane on the left side of PEWI. Hover over each of
the circle icons to see their labels, and click on the desired one. Later, when moving on to a
new land use, make sure to refresh the webpage.
b) To automatically change land use for the entire watershed: Find the top left rectangle in the
watershed. When you hover your mouse, you will see the display “1,1”. Double click your
mouse on this rectangle. All the rectangles in the watershed should change to the land use
you selected.
c) To record the results i-iv in the table below: Click on the “Results” tab located in the upper
right side of PEWI. Scroll down to the second table, “Ecosystem Service
Indicator/Measurement.” From section “Score (out of 100)” and column “Y1” record the
numbers, from 0-100, for all results i-iv in each column in the table below.
Part IIa
Score (out of 100), Y1
Results
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Ecosystem Service
Indicator/Measurement
Yield: Corn Grain
Yield: Grass Hay
Water Quality: Nitrate
pollution control/instream concentration
Water Quality:
Phosphorus pollution
control/in-stream loading
(1) Conventional
Corn
(2) Conservation
Corn
(3) Hay
(4) Prairie
After completing the table above, we will break out for a group discussion.
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Water Quality Workshop
People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
Part IIb: Iowa Nutrient Reduction Challenge
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy targets 41% and 29% reductions respectively for the amount
of nitrogen and phosphorus flowing to surface waters (Iowa NRS, 2014). How can we meet our state’s
policy goals? Using PEWI, we can try out different options to meet nitrogen and phosphorus goals at
no cost. Let’s make this fun by brainstorming ways to improve nutrient control on our landscapes.
In small groups, list five ways to redesign the watershed to accomplish nutrient goals. Each group will
report a strategy to the whole group. Then, individually, try to implement some of the strategies in
PEWI. Once you have implemented your redesign strategies, write your results for nitrogen and
phosphorus control below in the column “Redesigned Landscape.” Then, go back to your results from
the basic scenarios in Part IIa for Conventional Corn and Conservation Corn. Write your results for
nitrogen and phosphorus control again below. Use the formula below to convert nitrogen and
phosphorus control scores to percent nutrient reduction.
Score (out of 100), Y1
Results
Ecosystem Service Indicator/Measurement
Conventional
Corn
Conservation
Corn
Redesigned
Landscape
Water Quality: Nitrate pollution control
Water Quality: Phosphorus pollution control
𝑁𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 % = 100 ∗
𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 − 𝐼𝑁𝑆𝐸𝑅𝑇 𝐴𝑁𝑌 𝐿𝐴𝑁𝐷𝑆𝐶𝐴𝑃𝐸 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
100 − 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
Percent reduction
Nutrient reduction
Ecosystem Service Indicator/Measurement
Water Quality: Nitrate concentration
Water Quality: Phosphorus loading
Conventional
Corn
0%
Conservation
Corn
Redesigned
Landscape
0%

Describe your redesigned landscape for nutrient reduction. What do you see in the landscape
you built?

Why did you do things that way?

What outcomes were expected? Unexpected?

How do nitrogen and phosphorus differ between your redesigned landscape and Conventional
Corn and Conservation Corn scenarios? Did your redesigned landscape meet nutrient reduction
goals?

What are some of your takeaways from the nutrient reduction landscape exercise?
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Water Quality Workshop
People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
Part III: PEWI roundtable
The exercise concludes with a roundtable discussion on PEWI’s core concepts and how they might
apply in the real world. If you have interest in taking notes, we have provided space below.
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Water Quality Workshop
People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
Homework: PEWI Hands-on – Advanced Exercise: Dream Landscapes
One of the advantages of PEWI is it allows people to try out different land-use options at no cost.
We’re going to take advantage of this strength and make it fun by designing our dream landscapes.
Don’t get too hung up on how the world is, but focus on how you would like it to be. Consider things
like:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
What benefits do I get from different land uses?
What benefits do I want agricultural watersheds to provide?
What land uses should go next to the stream?
What land uses should go in steep sloping areas?
What land uses do better when it’s a wet year? What land uses do better when it’s a dry year?
You may use whatever land uses that you desire. Note the Precipitation in Year 1 (inches): _________.
Please record results for Year 1 (Y1) in the columns in the tables below.
Land Use
Conventional Corn
Conservation Corn
Conventional Soybean
Conservation Soybean
Mixed Fruits and Vegetables
Permanent Pasture
Rotational Grazing
Grass Hay
Herbaceous Perennial Bioenergy
Prairie
Wetland
Alfalfa
Conservation Forest
Conventional Forest
Short-rotation Woody Bioenergy
Percent,
Y1
Ecosystem Service Indicator/Measurement
Climate Adaptation and Mitigation: Carbon
Sequestration
Habitat: Biodiversity
Habitat: Game Wildlife
Soil Quality: Erosion Control
Water Quality: Nitrate pollution control
Water Quality: Phosphorus pollution
control
Water Quality: Sediment control
Yield: Alfalfa
Yield: Cattle
Yield: Corn Grain
Yield: Grass Hay
Yield: Herbaceous Perennial Biomass
Yield: Mixed Fruits and Vegetables
Yield: Short-rotation Woody Biomass
Yield: Soybeans
Yield: Wood
Total Index
Score (out
of 100), Y1
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Water Quality Workshop
People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
Some questions to consider based on what you constructed in your dream landscape:

Describe your dream landscape. What do you see in the landscape you built?

Why did you do things that way?

What outcomes were expected? Unexpected?

How do nitrogen and phosphorus differ between your dream landscape, the nutrient reduction
redesigned landscape, and Conventional Corn and Conservation Corn scenarios? Did your
dream landscape meet nutrient reduction goals?
What are some of your takeaways from the dream landscape exercise?
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Water Quality Workshop
People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration
APPENDIX: WORKSHEET FOR FACILITATORS ONLY
After the PEWI Basic exercise, consider the following questions.




What patterns does each land use show?
How are they different?
How are they similar?
Why? What seems to cause the differences?
For the roundtable discussion, workshop participants may consider questions such as:










What goals do people consider when making land-use and management decisions?
How do people currently discuss land management, conservation, and stewardship?
What are some other aspects of land management, conservation, or stewardship that people
don’t often discuss?
What are ecosystem services, and why are they important to people?
What is a watershed, and why is that important to people?
What benefits provided by agricultural lands extend across the watershed? How do we discuss
those benefits today?
What possible events or factors do people consider when making land-use decisions that
impact future years? How have those decision factors changed in recent years?
What are people’s future goals for the agricultural landscape in their communities and beyond?
What are some small changes that could help work toward those goals?
What are some major changes, as well as some of the challenges in reaching those goals?
At the end of the workshop, participants may reflect on the following questions to provide feedback to
the facilitator (add to survey):





What do participants think is most useful about PEWI?
What limitations did PEWI have?
Who else might find PEWI useful?
What did participants learn or take away from this discussion that they didn’t expect?
Our goals in this workshop are XXXX. What could we change or do better to help achieve these
goals?
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