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EU-Project MoNit: a DSS to assess the impact of actions and changing frameworks on the nitrate load in the Upper Rhine Valley aquifer

MARKUS CASPER¹, JOST GRIMM-STRELE², HENDRIK LAMBRECHT², MARGARETE FINCK⁵, NINA GRAVELINE⁴, THOMAS GUDERA², STEPHANIE KORTE², BURKHARD SCHNEIDER² & PAUL VAN DIJK³

1 Universität Trier, Physische Geographie, D-54286 Trier, Germany

casper@uni-trier.de

2 Landesanstalt für Umwelt, Messungen und Naturschutz Baden-Württemberg, Karlsruhe, Germany

3 Association pour la relance Agricole en Alsace, Schiltigheim, France

4 BRGM, Montpellier, France

5 Landwirtschaftliches Technologiezentrum Augustenberg, Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract The large groundwater aquifer in the Upper Rhine Valley shows a high nitrate load due to various reasons. To decrease the input of nitrate a series of regulations are currently in force, and first steps are being taken in the German as well as in the French part of the Upper Rhine Valley towards their implementation. Furthermore, changing directives within the agricultural sector will affect future management practices and consequently the nitrate input into the aquifer. Thus different working groups within the multi-national EU-INTERREG-III-project “MoNit—Modelling of the groundwater contam­ination by nitrate in the Upper Rhine Valley” developed a simulation tool that allows the assessment of future nitrate load in an integrative way, i.e. by tak­ing into account conditions at plot scale as well as socio-economic aspects and macro-scale transport processes. This tool allows well-founded evaluations of the efficiency of political decisions and helps to prioritise the steps to reduce the nitrate input. To achieve these aims five different models were coupled.

Key words CAP; climatology; diffuse pollution; EU-Interreg; groundwater model; MoNit; nitrates; socio-economic model; sustainable management; Upper Rhine Valley; water ressources