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