About

Joel Peterson is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He earned his B.S. degree in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Minnesota, his M.S. in Agricultural Engineering from Penn State University, and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Purdue University. His external affiliations include a professorship and chair of Agricultural Engineering Technology at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. Joel has industry experience with private engineering consulting firms, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources. During his time with the Army Corps of Engineers, he spent four months in Iraq serving as the lead project engineer on several environmental rehabilitation projects. His research interests focus on agricultural engineering technology, and he has contributed to the field through his professional work and academic involvement.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Public administration
• Environmental science
• Optoelectronics
• Nanotechnology
• Optics
• Physics
• Business
• Materials science
• Environmental planning

Selected publications

• Optimizing land management for nitrogen reduction: A bio-economic spatial model

  Journal of Environmental Management · 2025-03-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Agricultural fertilizer contributes substantially to nitrogen pollution throughout the world, leading to many negative impacts including ecological dead zones. Alternative crop management practices, such as cover crops and perennial crops, can limit nitrogen pollution. To optimize land use changes to meet potential nitrate reduction scenarios, we develop a flexible geo-spatial economic framework, balancing nitrate reduction with reductions in farm profit. Cover crop and perennial crop patterns at the hydrologic response unit (HRU) level are simulated with a novel and more realistic management unit approach by combining Soil and Water Assessment Tool model outputs and an economic programming model. We apply our framework to a major Minnesota River Basin watershed, the Cottonwood River watershed, in the state of Minnesota, USA, finding that strategically located cover crops can be used to achieve significant nitrate effluent reduction, if perennial crops are optimally placed as a part of a collective effort. A large driver of nitrate pollution and reduction in profit is yearly variation, a proxy for precipitation volume-indicating that climate change may be particularly impactful in areas where climate change models predict significant changes in precipitation patterns.

  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Land Management for Nitrogen Reduction: A Bio-Economic Spatial Model

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Multi-Wafer Growth Simultaneously on Four 6 cm × 6 cm CdZnTe Substrates for Step Increase in MBE HgCdTe Wafer Production

  Journal of Electronic Materials · 2022 · 2 citations

  • Optoelectronics
  • Materials science
  • Optics
  PublisherDOI

• Willingness to Accept for Perennial Crop Adoption: The Influence of Trust in Environmental and Government Organizations

  JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association · 2021-11-15 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Replacing corn crops with perennial species can decrease sedimentation, increase soil health metrics, and of particular importance for the reduction of dead zones downstream, reduce agricultural nitrate pollution. Farmers can be paid to grow perennial species, but how much they are willing to accept to do so, as well as what factors influence the amount they want, are key. Using a mail survey administered to 3,000 farmers in Minnesota, home of the headwaters of the Mississippi, we show that farmers with a higher trust of environmental organizations and state agencies are willing to accept less to replace their crops with perennial crops, particularly for longer contracts, which produce more environmental benefits.

  PublisherDOI

• Minnesota Stormwater Research and Technology Transfer Program – A Comprehensive Approach to Collaborative Research

  Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education · 2021 · 1 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Business

  Abstract The University of Minnesota Water Resources Center (UMN WRC) in collaboration with the Minnesota Stormwater Research Council (MSRC) has developed a robust program to advance urban stormwater management and policy through the completion of research. Through this unique collaboration, stormwater professionals and researchers across Minnesota are engaged in multi‐sector research to prevent, minimize, and mitigate urban stormwater impacts by studying existing and innovative structural and non‐structural practices, policies, and management techniques. The center and the council have evolved a comprehensive approach by: Obtaining diversified funding resulting in an annual average $1M budget. Coordinating and building partnerships at local, regional, state, and federal levels to leverage stormwater research resources. Using the council to engage with stormwater researchers, professionals, policymakers, and stakeholders. Identifying strategic priorities through assessments of needed research (i.e., the Minnesota Stormwater Research Roadmap). Providing a process for prioritizing, soliciting, submitting, approving, and implementing stormwater‐related research proposals. The program also invests in technology transfer seeking the effective and efficient dissemination of research results to those who can best benefit from it. The council is an organization of stormwater professionals, practitioners, managers, engineers, researchers, and others established in 2016 to work with the center to facilitate relevant, applied research and support education and technology transfer. This paper summarizes the efforts of the program, the future outlook, and highlights the collaboration and the connection of the University and the center to agencies, local units of government, and private engineering consulting businesses, who all were integral to the success of the program.

  PublisherDOI

• A New Coast: Strategies for Responding to Devastating Storms and Rising Seas

  2019-11-26 · 6 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A New Coast

  Island Press/Center for Resource Economics eBooks · 2019-01-01 · 36 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In this book the author draws a comprehensive picture of how storms and rising seas will change the coast. Peterson offers a clear-eyed assessment of how governments can work with the private sector and citizens to be better prepared for the coming coastal inundation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• State and Community Choices in Preparing for a Changing Coast

  Island Press/Center for Resource Economics eBooks · 2019-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  AbstractState and local governments along the coast face some big picture choices in preparing for more severe storms and rising seas. The threshold choice is whether to engage the difficult subject at all or simply defer it to some future date. Several factors might cause a state or local government to cross the threshold of putting preparation for these risks on the agenda. For some, a major storm is a deciding factor. For example, interest in coastal inundation in New York State increased after Hurricane Sandy. Often, however, a decision to work on the problem results from the interest of a motivated official, local activist, or local organization, rather than a top-down mandate.

  PublisherDOI

• Coastal Disaster Planning: Preparing for the Wrong Hazards

  Island Press/Center for Resource Economics eBooks · 2019-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  AbstractThe United States is fortunate to have a strong and broadly capable network of state and federal disaster response programs, built around the Stafford Disaster Relief and Recovery Act (1988). The Stafford Act authorizes programs that complement the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) by providing federal technical, financial, logistical, and other assistance in the event of major disasters requiring a response beyond the resources of a state. These programs apply to disasters other than flooding, including earthquakes and wildfires. Unfortunately, the costs of disasters are increasing steadily, largely driven by the very high cost of the impacts of major hurricanes on coastal communities.

  PublisherDOI

• Coastal Storm and Sea Level Rise Risks to Critical Infrastructure

  Island Press/Center for Resource Economics eBooks · 2019-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  AbstractSea level rise and more severe coastal storms pose a risk to critical infrastructure, such as transportation and water treatment facilities, which are necessary for the day-today operation of society. Military facilities, essential to national security, are also at risk. A national program to prepare for more severe storms and rising seas needs to address these critical infrastructure assets, and this requires a basic understanding of the risks these facilities face.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• INFEWS/T3: Innovations for Sustainable Food, Energy, And Water Supplies In Intensively Cultivated Regions: Integrating Technologies, Data, And Human Behavior

  NSF · $2.4M · 2017–2023

Frequent coauthors

• S. M. Johnson

  36 shared

• D. D. Lofgreen

  RTX (United States)

  23 shared

• M. Reddy

  RTX (United States)

  22 shared

• David R. Steward

  16 shared

• J. D. Benson

  16 shared

• L. O. Bubulac

  16 shared

• R. N. Jacobs

  Sensors (United States)

  15 shared

• A. J. Stoltz

  15 shared