The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the development of cost-effective strategies for fulfilling the goals in the EU Water Framework Directive by identifying robust agricultural areas for which only a limited part of the nitrate leached from the root zone reaches the streams. The specific scientific objectives are:
To further develop and quantify the ability to resolve near surface local scale heterogeneity by using the geophysical methods MiniSkyTEM and Magnetic Resonance Sounding (MRS).
To assess the heterogeneity of the location of the redox interface and the implications of this heterogeneity on subsurface nitrate reduction.
To further develop and test coupled codes for simulation of nitrate leaching, transport and reduction at catchment scale (MIKE SHE-DAISY, HydroGeoSphere).
To develop and test a methodology for identifying the smallest potential scale (RES) at which a hydrological model can have predictive capability.
To identify the smallest possible scale at which nitrate reduction in the subsurface can be assessed with a specified uncertainty for Danish catchments.
To assess the economical benefits of more precise, local scale agricultural regulations.
