Publication: Evaluating the Cost Effectiveness of Multiple Best Management Practices in Agricultural Watersheds
All || By Area || By Year| Title | Evaluating the Cost Effectiveness of Multiple Best Management Practices in Agricultural Watersheds | Authors/Editors* | Wanhong Yang, Yongbo Liu, Hailiang Sheng, Jing Yang, Predrag Rajsic, Alfons Weersink, Alain Rousseau |
|---|---|
| Where published* | OMAFRA Technical Report |
| How published* | Technical Report |
| Year* | 2009 |
| Volume | |
| Number | |
| Pages | 46 |
| Publisher | |
| Keywords | Watershed Modelling, Integrated Modelling, BMP, Genetic Algorithm, SHARCNET |
| Link | |
| Abstract |
Growing concern about the adverse environmental effects of agriculture has led to the establishment of various conservation programs in Ontario such as the Environmental Farm Plan and the Greencover Program. Typically these agricultural conservation programs provide landowners with financial incentives to implementing best management practices (BMPs) such as conservation tillage, nutrient management, and riparian buffers. These programs could generate environmental and economic benefits to society that outweigh program costs. However, given limited government budgets and the heterogeneity of eligible land parcels, it is critical to evaluate both the economic costs and water quality benefits of these BMPs, and direct public funds to locations where the greatest environmental benefits can be achieved at least costs. The purpose of proposed OMAFRA research is to develop an integrated framework that combines economic, hydrologic, and GIS modelling to evaluate cost effectiveness of multiple BMPs in agricultural watersheds in Ontario. Specifically, the project has three interrelated objectives: ⢠Develop an integrated economic, hydrologic and GIS modelling system for evaluating the cost effectiveness of multiple BMPs in Ontario; ⢠Apply the integrated modelling system to examine the economic costs and water quality benefits of multiple BMPs in a representative agricultural watershed of the Grand River Basin; ⢠Apply the integrated modelling system to prioritize locations for agricultural conservation programs, and to evaluate their corresponding cost effectiveness. The project is making progress towards achieving the third-year objectives as planned in the research proposal. In consultation with staff at the Grand River Conservation Authority and OMAFRA, we identified the Fairchild Creek watershed Creek watershed as the study site for the project and relevant data have been collected and compiled. The research group led by Dr. Alain Rousseau have setup, calibrated and validated the hydrologic model for examining water quality effects of conservation tillage, nutrient management, and riparian buffers for the Fairchild Creek watershed â a representative watershed in the Grand River Basin. The research group led by Dr. Alfons Weersink at Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics of University of Guelph have developed economic models to estimate economic costs of BMPs including conservation tillage, nutrient management, and riparian buffers. In parallel, the research group led by Dr. Wanhong Yang at Geography of University of Guelph developed an integrated economic, hydrologic, and GIS modelling system based on a genetic algorithm for evaluating the cost effectiveness of multiple BMPs. The three research groups are currently coordinating their efforts to fine tune the modelling components and the integrated system, and move into the evaluation of individual and multiple BMPs in the Fairchild Creek watershed. |
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