Abstract
This investigation reports on a new national model to evaluate the effectiveness of catchment sensitive farming in England, and how pollution mitigation measures have improved water quality between 2006 and 2016. An adapted HYPE (HYdrological Predictions for the Environment) model was written to use accurate farm emissions data so that the pathway impact could be accounted for in the land phase of transport. Farm emissions were apportioned into different runoff fractions simulated in surface and soil layers, and travel time and losses were taken into account. These were derived from the regulator’s ‘catchment change matrix’ and converted to monthly load time series, combined with extensive point source load datasets. Very large flow and water quality monitoring datasets were used to calibrate the model nationally for flow, nitrogen, phosphorus, suspended sediments and faecal indicator organisms. The model was simulated with and without estimated changes to farm emissions resulting from catchment measures, and spatial and temporal changes to water quality concentrations were then assessed.
Highlights
The objective of this investigation was to develop a new national, unsteady, process-based water quality model to assess the effectiveness of the U.K. government’s catchment sensitive farming (CSF)initiative
The Environment Agency are required to carry out a formal evaluation of the improvements in environmental quality resulting from programs of changes in agricultural practice, which includes measures to reduce losses of phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment and faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) from farmyards and fields in defined priority areas across England
TN across the country averaged over 10 years of the CSF programme (2006–2016), with hotspots across the country averaged over 10 years of the CSF programme (2006–2016), with hotspots around around the North West and East Anglia, showing a distribution that is qualitatively similar to the the North West and East Anglia, showing a distribution that is qualitatively similar to the distribution distribution of effort (Figure 1 in [18])
Summary
The objective of this investigation was to develop a new national, unsteady, process-based water quality model to assess the effectiveness of the U.K. government’s catchment sensitive farming (CSF)initiative. The Environment Agency are required to carry out a formal evaluation of the improvements in environmental quality resulting from programs of changes in agricultural practice, which includes measures to reduce losses of phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment and faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) from farmyards and fields in defined priority areas across England. This formal evaluation is carried out every four years, and in other years measures to reduce losses from agriculture are planned and implemented. The planning and evaluation requires both land use and water quality modelling, including losses from farms and the impact of these losses on in-stream water quality, at both a local and a national scale
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