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Development of a Nutrient Load Apportionment Modelling Toolbox
Author(s)
Date Issued
2016-07-14
Date Available
2016-09-07T11:51:43Z
Abstract
Where surface waters are impacted by excess nutrients, understanding the sources of those nutrients is key to the development of effective, targeted, mitigation measures. In Ireland, nutrient emissions remains the top suspected cause of surface waters not achieving the required Good Status, as defined by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Hence, a toolbox has been developed to predict the sources of nutrients contributing to these emissions, and to assess future pressures and the likely effectiveness of targeted mitigation scenarios. This Source Load Apportionment Model (SLAM) supports catchment managers by providing scientifically robust evidence to back-up decision-making in relation to reducing nutrient pollution. The SLAM is a source-oriented model that calculates the nitrogen & phosphorus exported from each sector (e.g. pasture, forestry, wastewater discharges) that contribute to nutrient loads in a river. The SLAM was built as a modular framework in ArcGIS ModelBuilder to encourage continuous development by a range of scientific experts without the need for programming skills. Model output ispresented as maps andtablesshowing the proportionsof nutrientemissions to water attributed to each sector in each sub-catchment. Results for the Suir catchment, in the South East of Ireland, indicate that diffuse losses of nutrients from pasture arethe dominant source of nitrogen and both wastewater discharges and losses from pasture are dominant for phosphorus. The Irish EPA has incorporated these model results into the WFD characterisation process for Irish catchments.
Type of Material
Conference Publication
Web versions
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
Conference Details
International Environmental Modelling & Software Society (iEMSs) 8th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software, Toulouse, France, 10-14 July 2016
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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