Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/M019837/1
Nitrate from agriculture: moving from uncertain data to operational responses
Fellowship Award
- Fellow:
- Dr M Bieroza, Lancaster University, Lancaster Environment Centre
- Grant held at:
- Lancaster University, Lancaster Environment Centre
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- None
- Science Topics:
- Environmental protection
- Hydrology
- Pollution/pollution control
- Earth & environmental
- Sustainable development
- Environmental assessment
- Spatial Planning
- Abstract:
- The recently completed European Nitrogen Assessment estimated that the excess nitrogen in the environment costs the European Union between 70 and 320 billion Euro per year and around 80% of European freshwaters exceed the nitrogen threshold for high risk to biodiversity. Agriculture is the main source of nitrate and ammonia as half of the nitrogen in fertilizers and manures is lost with water runoff. In freshwaters excess nitrogen is responsible for eutrophication, loss of biodiversity and increased costs of drinking water treatment as it is harmful to human health. Thus European directives, the Nitrates Directive and the Water Framework Directive (WFD), put an obligation on each Member State to routinely monitor water quality and its ecological status and identify waters that are or in the future could become at risk of nitrogen pollution. These statutory requirements are fulfilled in England and Wales by the Environment Agency who collects and designates Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs). The NVZs designation is a multi-step assessment of the risk of pollution in both water bodies that are subject to routine monitoring and those without monitoring (typically headwater catchments). Monitoring data are combined with the additional evidence on the risks from land use models of nitrogen pollution. The land use models enable an assessment of pollution in surface waters without any monitoring sites but nitrogen losses to the environment are controlled by a number of factors, many of which are location-specific. Thus this task can be difficult "as models of anywhere do not exist because everywhere is different". As new monitoring and modelling techniques become available it is thus important to incorporate this new evidence into existing frameworks for designating the NVZs. In this project the Fellow will investigate a large body of recent monitoring and modelling research on nitrate pollution to provide a qualitative comparison of existing methods and an evaluation of their limitations regarding data inputs and uncertainty in the model outputs. This comprehensive evaluation will ensure that the most scientifically-sound and cost efficient methods are used to designate the NVZs. Keywords: Nitrate pollution, Water Framework Directive, Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, monitoring, modelling, risk assessment, uncertainty
- NERC Reference:
- NE/M019837/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Knowledge Exchange Fellowships
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Policy Placement Fellowship
This fellowship award has a total value of £71,070
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Indirect - Indirect Costs | Exception - Staff | Exception - T&S |
|---|---|---|
| £6,873 | £49,660 | £14,537 |
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