Managing diffuse pollution from agriculture in the Ingbirchworth catchment, Yorkshire

Introduction

This project aims to implement and to test the effectiveness of best management practices which are designed to minimise diffuse nutrient pollution from agriculture.

Summary

A large body of process research exists which focuses on the pathways and mechanisms leading to diffuse nutrient pollution from agricultural activity. This has led to a series of recommendations regarding the timing and rate of application of nutrients to agricultural land, and the treatment of agricultural runoff to minimise nutrient export. However, the effectiveness of these measures remains largely untested, particularly at the field and small-catchment scale. It is also at these larger scales that the challenges associated with the uptake of best practice are found. Increased uptake of such recommendations would be helped by demonstration of their effectiveness.

In combination with colleagues from the University of Leeds, Yorkshire Water, Defra, and the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, this project will make Ingbirchworth, a headwater catchment of the River Don in Yorkshire, an Associate Catchment Sensitive Farming catchment under Defra´s England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative. This pilot catchment will be used to develop the stakeholder networks required for catchment-scale implementation of best practice, and to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of nutrient management strategies.

Approach

The project will build on pre-existing stakeholder networks in the Ingbirchworth catchment, developed under the Voluntary Initiative for pesticides. These networks will be used to implement best practice for nutrient management. The implementation will be targeted at high risk activities and high risk areas within Ingbirchworth, identified using risk-based modelling approaches. Nutrient fluxes will be monitored before, during and after implementation of best practice to evaluate how effectively the measures reduce nutrient delivery to surface waters and groundwater.