Application of the FARMSCOPER tool for assessing agricultural diffuse pollution mitigation methods across the Hampshire Avon Demonstration Test Catchment, UK

Abstract

Abstract Agricultural diffuse pollution is a significant contributor to water and air quality in many catchments and the need to control harmful emissions remains paramount for government policy. In England, the Demonstration Test Catchments (DTCs) have been established to provide a basis for testing on-farm mitigation measures using collaborative multi-partner research and some of this work is targeting the Hampshire Avon (∼1700 km2) catchment. To help provide integrated farm advice across England and Wales, a new Excel-based tool, FARM Scale Optimisation of Pollutant Emission Reductions (FARMSCOPER), has recently been developed for characterising diffuse agricultural pollutant emissions from representative farm types and quantifying the expected impacts of control options on those losses to the environment. Against this background, this paper describes the application of FARMSCOPER in the Hampshire Avon DTC in order to assess its utility at catchment scale and the potential benefits of relevant and practical mitigation options. Spatial datasets and the Agricultural Census returns for 2009 specific to the River Avon catchment were integrated to produce a collection of representative farm types which capture the characteristics of the local physical environment, land use patterns and farm management practices. FARMSCOPER was used to estimate the annual emissions of nitrate, phosphorus, sediment, nitrous oxide, methane and ammonia for each representative farm type. The scenarios investigated comprised baseline losses with no mitigation measures implemented, current emissions using information on the present implementation of options under existing schemes and initiatives and, the maximum potential reduction possible on the basis of implementing all available and relevant options. Model outputs suggested that reductions in pollutant loads in response to the existing uptake of mitigation methods are small (e.g. 10% for phosphorus, 7% for sediment, 4% for nitrate and 5% for nitrous oxide). FARMSCOPER suggested that technically feasible pollutant reductions on the basis of the implementation of more mitigation options could be of the order of 47% for phosphorus, 66% for sediment, 22% for nitrate and 16% for nitrous oxide. This work represents the first catchment scale application of the FARMSCOPER tool.