An outstanding question is related to the contribution of changes in the climate system and in land use/land cover and agricultural practices in explaining changes in discharge. We address this question by developing statistical models to describe the changes in different parts of the discharge distribution. We use rainfall and harvested corn and soybean acreage to explain the observed stream flow variability. We focus on the Raccoon River at Van Meter, which is a 9000-km² watershed with daily discharge measurements covering most of the 20th century up to the present.

Villarini, G., and A. Strong, Roles of climate and agricultural practices in discharge changes in an agricultural watershed in Iowa, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 188, 204-211, 2014.