EPIC

Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model is a cropping systems model that was developed to estimate soil productivity as affected by erosion. EPIC simulates approximately eighty crops with one crop growth model using unique parameters for each crop. It predicts effects of management decisions on soil, water, nutrient and pesticide movements, soil loss, water quality, and crop yields for areas with homogeneous soils and management. EPIC functions on a daily time step and can simulate hundreds of years. The processes simulated include leaf interception of solar radiation and biomass production; division of biomass into roots, above ground mass, and economic yield; root growth; water use; and nutrient uptake. It can be configured for a wide range of crop rotations and other vegetative systems, tillage systems, and other management practices. EPIC can be used to simulate water quality, nitrogen and carbon cycling, and impact of climate change on agro-ecosystems.

Examples of EPIC applications include assessments of:

- relative comparisons between different erosion class soils,
- erosion losses and erosion impacts on crop productivity,
- effects of different nutrient treatments,
- surface runoff and leaching of nitrogen and phosphorous losses from fertilizer and manure applications,
- leaching and runoff from pesticide applications,
- soil erosion losses from wind erosion,
- climate change and drought impacts on crop yield and soil erosion,
- development of agricultural management practices that are effective at sequestering soil carbon,
- sediment and nutrient losses as a function of different tillage systems, crop rotations, and fertilizer rates,
- impacts of different irrigation amounts and timings,
- economic-environmental analyses in response to alternative cropping systems, management practices, and other scenarios,
- nutrient and pesticide movement estimates for alternative farming systems for water quality analysis,