Best Management Practices and Nutrient Reduction: An Integrated Economic-Hydrologic Model of the Western Lake Erie Basin

Hongxing Liu, Wendong Zhang, Elena Irwin, Jeffrey Kast, Noel Aloysius, Jay Martin and Margaret Kalcic

Abstract

We develop the first spatially integrated economic-hydrologic model of the western Lake Erie basin explicitly linking economic models of farmers’ field-level best management practice (BMP) adoption choices with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to evaluate nutrient management policy cost-effectiveness. We quantify trade-offs among phosphorus reduction policies and find that a hybrid policy coupling a fertilizer tax with cost-share payments for subsurface placement is the most cost-effective and can achieve the policy goal of 40% reduction in nutrient loadings. We also find economic adoption models alone can overstate the potential for BMPs to reduce nutrient loadings by ignoring biophysical complexities. (JEL Q18, Q53)