Grantee Research Project Results
2017 Progress Report: 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. , Royer, Matthew B , Ready, Richard C , Brooks, Robert P. , Boyer, Elizabeth W. , Kemanian, Armen , Bills, Brian
Current Investigators: Shortle, James S. , Brooks, Robert P. , Boyer, Elizabeth W. , Ready, Richard C , Royer, Matthew B , Bills, Brian , Kemanian, Armen
Institution: Pennsylvania State University , USDA , University of Maryland - Eastern Shore
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 Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2016 through August 31,2017
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 for Integrated Multi-scale Nutrient Pollution Solutions (CNS) is a collaboration of scientists and community partners engaged in a "shared discovery" process to develop an integrated systems approach to enhance the decision making capacity of key water and nutrient management institutional agents. We seek to provide connections between policy directives and on-the-ground actions by moving beyond the old paradigm or ‘BMP fix’ to discover optimal solutions that reduce nutrient pollution through understanding (1) the sources and flow paths of nutrients as they impact water quality and ecosystem function, (2) how individual management practices integrate and aggregate from field to watershed scales and beyond, (3) the importance of including socioeconomic and other local watershed issues, and (4) how this information is translated at different management levels to produce effective action and successful results. Our main objective is 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. These intervention scenarios are alternative sets of tactics and strategies for meeting the 2025 nutrient and sediment reduction goals in the Chesapeake Bay (Table 1).
Table 1. Description of CNS scenarios for meeting the 2025 pollution reduction goals in the Chesapeake Bay.
Scenario Type |
Description |
Scenario A |
Current condition |
Scenario B |
Chesapeake Bay TMDL directives (i.e. WIPs) |
Scenario C |
Multiple candidate “solution sets” designed to (a) identify strategies (e.g., spatial targeting, BMP selection) that achieve regional (i.e. Chesapeake Bay) water quality objectives at low cost; (b) develop heuristics that can enable communities to plan effectively without complex models; and (c) provide data and tests for inter-model comparison. |
Scenario D |
Expand goals of Scenario C to include local water quality and other community objectives |
Scenario E |
Explore the costs and benefits of major economic drivers by transforming the way nutrients are generated on the landscape. |
Progress Summary:
Major Activities:
During the fourth year of the project, the Center focused primarily on (1) implementing Scenario C (Smart scenarios that incorporated both cost effectiveness and water quality efficiency), (2) integrating lessons learned from model intercomparisons and cost/uncertainty evaluations, (3) exploring the relationships between modeled pollutant loads and ecological condition, (4) finalizing the approaches and steps for running Scenario D (smart WIP implementation emphasizing low-cost, efficient tactics and strategies), (5) creating effective narratives to communicate our results through the CNS webpage, and (6) gaining feedback from our Community Partners Council (CPC). Our final all-hands/CPC meeting was held on May 17-18, 2017 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Teams presented their current findings and used the suggestions generated during meeting activities and discussions to formulate our final plans for wrapping up the CNS project.
Significant Findings:
Key outcomes and achievements are summarized by project and combined to reveal the following:
- Large-scale planning tools lack specificity and relevance to local watershed managers, while more refined, spatially explicit watershed models combined with locally specific management to identify problem areas and establish current ecosystem condition are more connected to stakeholder concerns and goals and provide a more practical and cost-effective alternative for meeting Bay TMDL compliance.
- Multiple modeling and ecosystem approaches indicate that space, place, and time of stressor and management-related activities matter greatly.
- Major drivers of the system may be changing from NOx species to NHx species (i.e., from industry to agriculture). Our policies and actions need to be revised to reflect these shifts to produce effective solutions.
- The three main factors driving watershed simulation success include: (1) expertise on the science, (2) quality and availability of the data, and (3) local watershed stakeholder feedback.
- Local watershed managers are interested in both improving local water quality and meeting Bay pollutant reduction goals. Practices that achieve both results are given high priority by local stakeholders and hold the most promise for producing effective results.
- Stakeholder meetings indicate that local communities are not being effectively informed and engaged in state and regional level planning. Local processes identify hidden problems that need to be included in watershed discussions to enrich our understanding of local perspectives on sources and solutions to the problems.
Future Activities:
A top priority for the year is reconvening with our watershed stakeholders, community partners, and advisory committee to share project results and gain feedback for the final phase of the project, which will focus on compiling the lessons learned into meaningful recommendations for modelers, conservation planners, watershed specialists, local watershed groups, and other stakeholders to utilize in development and implementation of Smart Watershed Plans. This will be accomplished through two main venues:
- Stakeholder meetings in our focal watersheds
- Final workshop inviting all participants in the project.
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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Type | Citation | ||
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
Nutrient pollution, best management practices, nitrogen and phosphorus budgets, community engagement, hydrological models, stakeholders, shared discovery, scenarios, partnership, decision support, Pennsylvania Integrated Hydrologic Model, PIHM, cycles, agro-ecosystem models, model intercomparison, HydroTerre, cyber-infrastructure, nutrient and pollution transformation and transport, SWAT modeling, tactical interventions, Stream-Wetland-Riparian Index, ecological assessment, ecosystem services, nonmarket valuation, aquatic macroinvertebrates, watershed planning, Chesapeake Bay, Susquehanna River, Mid-Atlantic RegionRelevant Websites:
Relevant Web Sites:
http://ecosystems.psu.edu/directory/ewb100 Exit
http://plantscience.psu.edu/research/labs/kemanian/models-and-tools/cycles Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe 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.