OPENAIRE OpenAire Datacite Crossref Europe PubMed Central PubMed Central Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Open Access 2023-03-25 Abstract <p>Managing agricultural watersheds in an environmentally friendly manner necessitate the strategic implementation of well-targeted sustainable land management (SLM) practices that limit soil and nonpoint source pollution losses and translocation. Watershed-scale SLM-scenario modeling has the potential to identify efficient and effective management strategies from the field to the integrated landscape level. In a case study targeting a 66-hectare watershed in Petzenkirchen, Lower Austria, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was utilized to evaluate a variety of locally adoptable SLM practices. SWAT was calibrated and validated (monthly) at the catchment outlet for flow, sediment, nitrate-nitrogen (NO3￢ﾀﾓN), ammonium nitrogen (NH4￢ﾀﾓN), and mineralized phosphorus (PO4￢ﾀﾓP) using SWATplusR. Considering the locally existing agricultural practices and socioeconomic and environmental factors of the research area, four conservation practices were evaluated: baseline scenario, contour farming (CF), winter cover crops (CC), and a combination of no-till and cover crops (NT￢ﾀﾉ+￢ﾀﾉCC). The NT￢ﾀﾉ+￢ﾀﾉCC SLM practice was found to be the most effective soil conservation practice in reducing soil loss by around 80%, whereas CF obtained the best results for decreasing the nutrient loads of NO3￢ﾀﾓN and PO4￢ﾀﾓP by 11% and 35%, respectively. The findings of this study imply that the setup SWAT model can serve the context-specific performance assessment and eventual promotion of SLM interventions that mitigate on-site land degradation and the consequential off-site environmental pollution resulting from agricultural nonpoint sources.</p Agricultural and Biological Sciences Soil Context (archaeology) Engineering Water Quality Soil water Water Science and Technology Watershed Management 2. Zero hunger Geography Ecology Life Sciences Soil and Water Assessment Tool Agriculture Hydrology (agriculture) 6. Clean water Soil Erosion and Agricultural Sustainability Water resource management Hydrological Modeling and Water Resource Management Water quality Archaeology Austria Physical Sciences SWAT model Environmental Monitoring Cartography Conservation of Natural Resources Biogeochemical Cycling of Nutrients in Aquatic Ecosystems Drainage basin Nitrogen Soil Science Streamflow Article Environmental science Soil quality Machine learning Environmental Chemistry Civil engineering Biology Nonpoint source pollution Soil science 15. Life on land Watershed Simulation Watershed management Watershed Computer science Geotechnical engineering 13. Climate action FOS: Biological sciences Environmental Science Land use FOS: Civil engineering Francis Kilundu Musyoka, Peter Strauß, Guangju Zhao, Stefan Strohmeier, Benedict M. Mutua, Andreas Klik, 2023-03-25 journalpaper Abstract <p>Managing agricultural watersheds in an environmentally friendly manner necessitate the strategic implementation of well-targeted sustainable land management (SLM) practices that limit soil and nonpoint source pollution losses and translocation. Watershed-scale SLM-scenario modeling has the potential to identify efficient and effective management strategies from the field to the integrated landscape level. In a case study targeting a 66-hectare watershed in Petzenkirchen, Lower Austria, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was utilized to evaluate a variety of locally adoptable SLM practices. SWAT was calibrated and validated (monthly) at the catchment outlet for flow, sediment, nitrate-nitrogen (NO3￢ﾀﾓN), ammonium nitrogen (NH4￢ﾀﾓN), and mineralized phosphorus (PO4￢ﾀﾓP) using SWATplusR. Considering the locally existing agricultural practices and socioeconomic and environmental factors of the research area, four conservation practices were evaluated: baseline scenario, contour farming (CF), winter cover crops (CC), and a combination of no-till and cover crops (NT￢ﾀﾉ+￢ﾀﾉCC). The NT￢ﾀﾉ+￢ﾀﾉCC SLM practice was found to be the most effective soil conservation practice in reducing soil loss by around 80%, whereas CF obtained the best results for decreasing the nutrient loads of NO3￢ﾀﾓN and PO4￢ﾀﾓP by 11% and 35%, respectively. The findings of this study imply that the setup SWAT model can serve the context-specific performance assessment and eventual promotion of SLM interventions that mitigate on-site land degradation and the consequential off-site environmental pollution resulting from agricultural nonpoint sources.</p Evaluating the impacts of sustainable land management practices on water quality in an agricultural catchment in Lower Austria using SWAT 10.1007/s10661-023-11079-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11079-y 773903