Cost of best management practices to combat agricultural runoff and comparison with the local populations’ willingness to pay: Case of the Austreberthe watershed (Normandy, France)

Abstract

Land Use and Cover Changes (LUCCs) significantly increase the frequency of mudflows in the silty areas of north-western Europe and particularly in the NUTS 3 Seine-Maritime region (France). Predicting the effects of a range of possible LUCCs helps local authorities choose policies that can help to mitigate the risks to which local populations are exposed. In this article we build scenarios for changes in farming systems, with a 2015 horizon and with 2007 as the initial situation. These scenarios are assessed through combined biophysical and economic approaches. Two scenarios for the disappearance of dairy farming are chosen. One scenario has no public-action program (StopMilk), while the other one has a program based on the funding of best management practices (StopMilk-E). These scenarios are assessed at the small watershed scale (7 km 2 ) in terms of both changes in farming systems and effects on runoff (use of the STREAM model). Finally, the economic evaluation of additional costs of StopMilk-E is extrapolated at the level of the Austreberthe watershed syndicate (214 km 2 ), using the French Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) with a spatially referenced database of cropping plans. StopMilk leads to a significant increase in runoff whereas the local public-action program proposed under StopMilk-E reduces runoff to below the 2007 level. The Austreberthe watershed residents' willingness to pay for a 15-year program is around D 395,000/year, which is not sufficient to balance the cost of the modified farming practices (D 640,000/year over the first 3 years). Funding of the practices would require either subsidies from a higher level (Europe), borrowing by the community, and/or a more selective approach in the type and the location of farming practices to be funded. The method used for calculating costs at the watershed syndicate level shows the huge potential of new databases like LPIS (available in France since 2006) for the assessment of environmental issues.

Meta-modeling methods for estimating ammonia volatilization from nitrogen fertilizer and manure applications

“…Areas of cultivated crop species were derived from the European Land Parcel Identification System for France (Martin et al, 2014). Data on weather conditions were provided by the French national meteorological service "Météo-France".…”

Data on spatio-temporal representation of mineral N fertilization and manure N application as well as ammonia volatilization in French regions for the crop year 2005/06

“…Areas cultivated in crop year 2005/06 per crop per region were derived from the European Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) for France [8] , which was built within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regulations.…”

Ruissellement érosif et bien-être des citoyens : une nouvelle approche de l’estimation du consentement à payer

“…Depuis un certain temps, les études se sont multipliées sur le risque de ruissellement érosif. En France par exemple, Martin et al (2014) Le processus de construction du questionnaire s'avère crucial puisqu'il détermine par la suite la fiabilité des résultats obtenus (Arrow et al, 1993 ;Zhongmin et al, 2003 ;Johnston et al, 2017). Le traitement statistique des données recueillies se fait généralement à travers des modèles standards paramétriques (modèles Logit, Probit et Tobit).…”

“…En effet, face aux phénomènes de ruissellement érosif récurrents, les habitants voient leur bien-être altéré. Ce territoire est reconnu, sur un plan régional, comme très sensible aux phénomènes de ruissellement érosif (Crastes et al, 2014 ;Martin et al, 2014). Au-delà de l'analyse du seul bienêtre des habitants et de leur perception du risque, nous avons souhaité travailler, dans la continuité des travaux portant sur l'amélioration des méthodes d'évaluation, sur la possibilité d'améliorer la prédictibilité de la MEC via une méthode de traitement statistique originale.…”