Modelling the cost-effectiveness of mitigation methods for multiple pollutants at farm scale

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Gooday, R. D., Anthony, S. G., Chadwick, D. R., Newell-Price, P., Harris, D., Duethmann, D., Fish, R., Collins, A. L. and Winter, M. 2014. Modelling the cost-effectiveness of mitigation methods for multiple pollutants at farm scale. Science of the Total Environment. 468-469, pp. 1198-1209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.078

AuthorsGooday, R. D., Anthony, S. G., Chadwick, D. R., Newell-Price, P., Harris, D., Duethmann, D., Fish, R., Collins, A. L. and Winter, M.
Abstract

Reductions in agricultural pollution are essential for meeting nationally and internationally agreed policy targets for losses to both air and water. Numerous studies quantify the impact of relevant mitigation methods by field experimentation or computer modelling. The majority of these studies have addressed individual methods and frequently also individual pollutants. This paper presents a conceptual model for the synthesis of the evidence base to calculate the impact of multiple methods addressing multiple pollutants in order to identify least cost solutions for multiple policy objectives. The model is implemented as a farm scale decision support tool that quantifies baseline pollutant losses for identifiable sources, areas and pathways and incorporates a genetic algorithm based multi-objective procedure for determining optimal suites of mitigation methods. The tool is generic as baseline losses can be replaced with measured data and the default library of mitigation methods can be edited and expanded. The tool is demonstrated through application to two contrasting farm systems, using survey data on agricultural practices typical of England and Wales. These examples show how the tool could be used to help target the adoption of mitigation options for the control of diffuse pollution from agriculture. The feedback from workshops where Farmscoper was demonstrated is included to highlight the potential role of Farmscoper as part of the farm advisory process. 

Year of Publication2014
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Journal citation468-469, pp. 1198-1209
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.078
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Funder project or codeDelivering Sustainable Systems (SS) [ISPG]
The North Wyke Farm Platform [2012-2017]
Quantifying Sustainable Systems
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online23 May 2013
Publication process dates
Accepted24 Apr 2013
ISSN00489697
0048-9697
PublisherElsevier
Copyright licensePublisher copyright

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