Task 1.1 Nutrient mass balance calculations
- The N and the P budgets across the agricultural lands within the basins performed with Soil System Budget approach (Oenema et al. 2003) and with statistical data and site-specific coefficients
- Potential inputs (livestock manure, synthetic fertilizers, atmospheric deposition, biological fixation- the latter two terms only for N budget) compared to potential outputs (crop uptake, ammonia volatilization and denitrification in soils, the latter two terms only for N budget) to evaluate the risk of water pollution/eutrophication
- P and N loads from civil sources quantified using the population density and average nutrient abatement coefficients to account for wastewater treatment.
- Input, output and balance showed at a spatial resolution of individual municipalities and aggregated at the watershed scale using GIS software
- Annual nutrient loads exported from the catchments via river discharge calculated by data collected during monitoring program of the Regional Environmental Protection Agency (ARPA)
(Photo credits: M. Bartoli)
Task 1.2 Evaluation of the exported nutrient loads
- Seasonal campaigns at the basin closing sections of the Adda and Ticino rivers on the same dates of the sampling activities of task 3.3 to calculate exported nutrient loads from the river basins
- Validation of loads exported from the river basins calculated by ARPA data
- Comparison of nutrient excess across agricultural lands with the nutrient loads exported to quantify the amounts retained in the basin.