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Enhancing Nutrient Reduction Efforts with the National Nutrient Inventory
Citation:
Sabo, R., M. Pennino, J. Compton, C. Clark, M. Brehob, R. Hill, M. Weber, S. Markley, G. Ruiz-Mercado, Jim Carleton, S. Alford, M. Reynolds, A. Rea, H. Paulsen, D. Kopp, Catrina Nowakowski, A. Handler, R. Brooks, AND Q. Zhang. Enhancing Nutrient Reduction Efforts with the National Nutrient Inventory. Presented at EPA Tools & Resources Training Webinar, Washington, DC, April 03, 2025.
Impact/Purpose:
Nitrogen and phosphorus are critical to feeding, powering, and clothing our nation and the world, but excess nutrients lost from cities and farmland have resulted in costly environmental challenges. EPA’s National Nutrient Inventory Research Portfolio provides users with (1) nationally consistent, standardized methodology to track nutrient pollution sources across the US and (2) models to help understand how these pollution sources affect local and downstream water quality resources. This webinar will showcase the latest datasets and other products currently available in the National Nutrient Inventory Research Portfolio and show a first look at the web application, an online visualization and data download platform that will allow states, Tribes, local communities, and researchers to acquire foundational inventory data and incorporate water quality predictions at management-relevant scales.
Description:
While states and local communities have made progress in decreasing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to waterways, nutrient pollution continues to cost billions of dollars every year via mitigative expenses like drinking water treatment or revenue losses tied to decreased tourist spending, compromised fisheries, and diminished home values. The source and magnitude of nutrients within a jurisdiction are often not fully understood. Moreover, the impacts of local pollution sources (e.g., manure, lawn fertilizers) on water quality points of interest like drinking water nitrate contamination, HABs risk, and annual watershed nutrient export have not been quantified. To remedy this data gap, EPA’s National Nutrient Inventory Research Portfolio provides users with (1) nationally consistent, standardized methodology to track nutrient pollution sources across the United States at multiple spatial scales and (2) statistical and machine/deep learning predictive models to help understand how these pollution sources affect local and downstream water quality resources. This webinar will showcase the latest datasets and other products currently available in the National Nutrient Inventory Research Portfolio. We’ll also provide an update of ongoing work extending the National Nutrient Inventory to recent years and integrating it into models to predict water pollution hotspots across the US. We’ll close with a first look at the National Nutrient Inventory Explorer web application, an online visualization and data download platform that will allow states, Tribes, local communities, and researchers to acquire foundational inventory data and incorporate water quality predictions at management-relevant scales.
URLs/Downloads:
EPA Tools & Resources Training Webinar ArchiveEnhancing Nutrient Reduction Efforts with the National Nutrient Inventory (PDF, 29 pp, 3778 KB, about PDF)