Grantee Research Project Results
Center for Integrated Multi-scale Nutrient Pollution Solutions
EPA Grant Number: R835568Center: Center for Integrated Multi‐scale Nutrient Pollution Solutions
Center Director: Shortle, James S.
Title: Center for Integrated Multi-scale Nutrient Pollution Solutions
Investigators: Shortle, James S. , Brooks, Robert P. , Boyer, Elizabeth W. , Ready, Richard C , Royer, Matthew B , Bills, Brian , Kemanian, Armen
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Current Institution: Pennsylvania State University , University of Maryland - Eastern Shore , USDA
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: September 1, 2013 through August 31, 2018
Project Amount: $2,220,649
RFA: Centers for Water Research on National Priorities Related to a Systems View of Nutrient Management (2012) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water
Objective:
The Center melds transdisciplinary scientific discovery and engagement activities in an integrated systems approach to enhance the decision making capacity of key water and nutrient management institutional agents.
1) To develop advanced conceptual and scientific “webs of nutrient flows” characterizing contemporary agricultural systems, and also the relative nutrient inputs and outputs of non-agricultural systems, and 2) To use an integrated decision support process involving modeling, empirical data, and lessons learned to develop community-based, spatially-explicit, nutrient intervention scenarios that engage and inform stakeholders for high impact water management decisions.
Approach:
The Center will develop and test of a process for evaluating community-based interventions at multiple scales to reduce nutrient pollution. The approach is based on a paradigm for nutrient management that emphasizes multiple sources and control points. Components of the process include scenario building with watershed stakeholders to choose and evaluate nutrient interventions based on a suite of ecological, economic (benefit and cost), behavioral (acceptance), and other indicators derived from integrated modeling and other assessment activities by domain scientists. Community stakeholder will be actively engaged in assessment as well as scenario design in a “shared-discovery” model. Model validation will be conducted using ecological assessments. The scenario building and evaluation activities will entail multiple loops and iterations in the selection of a final set of interventions. The process will be developed and refined in an initial set of watersheds, and then applied to a second set to assess how data and decisions vary with larger spatial scales. Research, community engagement, education, and outreach activities will be conducted collectively and collaboratively by 7 integrated teams (Drivers and Interventions, Harmonizing Models, BMPs, Ecological Assessment, Informatics, Economics and Ecosystem Services, and Engagement, Education, and Outreach).
Expected Results:
Research to improve of watershed and community-level components of nutrient management is essential to improving our ability to understand, predict, and address nutrient pollution challenges. The outcomes of this research are: (1) an innovative process for choosing nutrient interventions, scalable from reach to watershed that is based on a systems view of nutrient management. The process will advance and engage transdisciplinary watershed science with community involvement for the design, acceptance, and implementation of nutrient management systems to achieve sustainable and cost effective health and environmental outcomes; (2) practical and usable decision-support tools that will facilitate the implementation of the process developed in (1) to help decision makers achieve societal, economic, and ecological benefits from nutrient pollution reductions.
Journal Articles: 14 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 57 publications | 14 publications in selected types | All 14 journal articles |
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Amin MGM, Veith TL, Collick AS, Karsten HD, Buda AR. Simulating hydrological and nonpoint source pollution processes in a karst watershed: a variable source area hydrology model evaluation. Agricultural Water Management 2017;180(Part B):212-223. |
R835568 (2016) R835568 (2017) |
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Amin M, Veith T, Shortle J, Karsten H, Kleinman P. Addressing the spatial disconnect between national-scale total maximum daily loads and localized land management decisions. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 2020;49(3):613-627. |
R835568 (Final) |
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Coi D, Ready R, Shortle J. Valuing water quality benefits from adopting best management practices:A spatial approach. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 2020;49(3):582-592. |
R835568 (Final) |
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DeWalle DR, Boyer EW, Buda AR. Exploring lag times between monthly atmospheric deposition and stream chemistry in Appalachian forests using cross-correlation. Atmospheric Environment 2016;146:206-214. |
R835568 (2016) R835568 (2017) |
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Horan R, Shortle J. Endogenous Risk and Point-nonpoint Uncertainty Trading Ratios. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 2017;99(2):427-446. |
R835568 (Final) |
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Iavorivska L, Boyer EW, Miller MP, Brown MG, Vasilopoulos T, Fuentes JD, Duffy CJ. Atmospheric inputs of organic matter to a forested watershed: variations from storm to storm over the seasons. Atmospheric Environment 2016;147:284-295. |
R835568 (2016) R835568 (2017) |
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King MD, Bryant RB, Saporito LS, Buda AR, Allen AL, Hughes LA, Hashem FM, Kleinman PJ, May EB. Urea release by intermittently saturated sediments from a coastal agricultural landscape. Journal of Environmental Quality 2017;46(2):302-310. |
R835568 (2017) |
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Kuwayama Y, Olmstead S. Hydroeconomic modeling of resource recovery from wastewater:Implications for water quality and quantity management. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 2020;49(3):593-602. |
R835568 (Final) |
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Leonard L, Duffy CJ. Automating data-model workflows at a level 12 HUC scale: watershed modeling in a distributed computing environment. Environmental Modelling & Software 2014;61:174-190. |
R835568 (2014) R835568 (2015) R835568 (2016) |
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Miller MP, Boyer EW, McKnight DM, Brown MG, Gabor RS, Hunsaker CT, Iavorivska L, Inamdar S, Johnson DW, Kaplan LA, Lin H, McDowell WH, Perdrial JN. Variation of organic matter quantity and quality in streams at Critical Zone Observatory watersheds. Water Resources Research 2016;52(10):8202-8216. |
R835568 (2016) R835568 (2017) |
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Ranjan R, Shortle J. Protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems in multiple stressor environments. Water Economics and Policy 2017;3(2):650011. |
R835568 (2016) R835568 (2017) |
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Sebestyen SD, Shanley JB, Boyer EW, Kendall C, Doctor DH. Coupled hydrological and biogeochemical processes controlling variability of nitrogen species in streamflow during autumn in an upland forest. Water Resources Research 2014;50(2):1569-1591. |
R835568 (2015) R835568 (2016) |
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Shortle J, Horan RD. Nutrient pollution: a wicked challenge for economic instruments. Water Economics and Policy 2017;3(02):1650033. |
R835568 (2016) R835568 (2017) |
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Williams MR, Buda AR, Elliott HA, Hamlett J, Boyer EW, Schmidt JP. Groundwater flow path dynamics and nitrogen transport potential in the riparian zone of an agricultural headwater catchment. Journal of Hydrology 2014;511:870-879. |
R835568 (2014) R835568 (2015) R835568 (2016) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
nutrient mass balances, biogeochemical cycles, geodatabase, hydrologic and nutrient cycling models, PIHM, Cheasapeake Bay Model, SWAT, SPARROW aquatic ecosystems, rapid assessment, ecosystem services, systemic barriers, web portal, interactive model scenario browser, geographic contextProgress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.