four essays on the control of large-scale nitrogen pollution
Brady, Mark
(2003).
Managing agriculture and water quality.
Diss. (sammanfattning/summary)
Uppsala :
Sveriges lantbruksuniv.,
Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae. Agraria, 1401-6249
; 369
ISBN 91-576-6199-5
[Doctoral thesis]
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Abstract
Water pollution caused by nutrients and chemicals that are leached from arable soils is a pervasive problem around the globe. The nonpoint-source nature of this pollu-tion makes it particularly complex to control from an environmental policy perspec-tive. This thesis focuses on the economics of managing arable-nitrogen flows, via surface waters to the coastal zone, from a large and spatially diverse catchment area. It is based on four self contained articles (I–IV). Article I considers the implications of time lags in ecosystem recovery processes for the dynamic cost-effectiveness of arable-nitrogen control. Article II evaluates the relative cost-efficiency of current Swedish nitrogen policy and the implications of agricultural policy for the least-cost solution. Article III analyzes the implications of covariation between arable emis-sions and retention/transport for stochastic coastal pollution abatement. Article IV explores the implications of imperfect substitutability between manure and chem-ical fertilizer in crop and pollution production for efficient environmental policy design. In each of articles I to III, a mathematical programming model is developed for the empirical analyses which are conducted in a cost-effectiveness framework. In these models changes in agricultural production practices at the watershed level are linked to indexes of marine water quality. In article I this is done explicitly, whereas in articles II and III net coastal nitrogen load is used as a proxy for environ-mental quality. The latter models also consider spatial heterogeneity in the fate and transport of nitrogen, and production costs. Article IV is purely a theoretical analysis. The principle results were; I) that the choice of abatement target (flow, stock or quality) had radical implications for the choice of abatement path, II) that least-cost abatement measures changed with the treatment of agricultural policy (i.e., whether treated as a social opportunity cost or not), III) under certain conditions, considera-tion of both emissions and retention risk caused a sweeping change in the allocation of abatement between regions/sub-catchments in the watershed, and IV) some of the standard results from the literature were shown not to hold (in general) when the perfect-substitutability assumption was dropped.
Authors/Creators: | Brady, Mark | ||||
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Title: | Managing agriculture and water quality | ||||
Subtitle: | four essays on the control of large-scale nitrogen pollution | ||||
Series Name/Journal: | Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae. Agraria | ||||
Year of publishing : | April 2003 | ||||
Number: | 369 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 31 | ||||
Papers/manuscripts: |
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Place of Publication: | Uppsala | ||||
ISBN for printed version: | 91-576-6199-5 | ||||
ISSN: | 1401-6249 | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Publication Type: | Doctoral thesis | ||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||
Agris subject categories.: | T Pollution > T01 Pollution P Natural resources > P10 Water resources and management | ||||
Subjects: | Not in use, please see Agris categories | ||||
Agrovoc terms: | nonpoint pollution, eutrophication, nitrogen, fertilizer application, leaching, environmental impact assessment, environmental policies, economic policies, cap, baltic sea | ||||
Keywords: | water pollution, eutrophication, nitrogen, nonpoint-source pollution, environmental and agricultural policy, CAP, positive mathematical programming, environmental risk, dynamic and stochastic cost-effectiveness, fertilizer, manure, Baltic Sea | ||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-150 | ||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-150 | ||||
ID Code: | 217 | ||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Economics | ||||
Deposited By: | Staff Epsilon | ||||
Deposited On: | 04 Apr 2003 00:00 | ||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 02 Dec 2014 10:02 |
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