Modelling of Nutrient Emissions in River Systems – MONERIS – Methods and Background

Abstract

MONERIS is a semi-empirical, conceptual model, which has gained international acceptance as a robust meso-to macro scale model for nutrient emissions. MONERIS is used to calculate nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) emissions into surface waters, in-stream retention, and resulting loads, on a river catchment scale. This paper provides the first (i) comprehensive overview of the model structure (both the original elements and the new additions), (ii) depiction of the algorithms used for all pathways, and for retention in surface waters, and (iii) illustration of the monthly disaggregation of emissions and the implementation of measures. The model can be used for different climatic conditions, long term historical studies, and for future development scenarios. The minimum validated spatial resolution is 50 km 2 , with a temporal resolution of yearly or monthly time steps. The model considers seven emission pathways (atmospheric deposition on surface waters, overland flow, erosion, tile drainage, groundwater, emissions from sealed urban areas, and point sources), and six emission sources (natural background, fertilizer application, nitrogen atmospheric deposition on arable land and other areas, urban sources, and point sources); and these are calculated separately for different land-uses. The pathway and source-related approach is a prerequisite for the implementation of measures to reduce non-point and point-source emissions. Therefore, we have modified MONERIS by the addition of a "management alternative" tool which can identify the potential effectiveness of nutrient reduction measures. MON-ERIS is an appropriate tool for addressing the scientific and political aspects of river basin management in support of a good surface water quality.

Modeling of Regionalized Emissions (MoRE) into Water Bodies: An Open-Source River Basin Management System

“…On the right side, an attribute window (top) and a structure window (bottom) are arranged, which show additional information about the record selected in the data grid. This includes access to related documents, for example, with graphical documentation of the calculation approaches (flowcharts) and R scripts for The empirical calculation approaches used in MoRE largely originate from the model MONERIS 2.01 [4][5][6] (MOdelling Nutrient Emissions in RIver Systems). Therefore, both models are related to one another, although they have been developed independently since 2009.…”

“…MoRE is used to calculate regionalized emissions considering different pollutant sources and emission pathways. Such approaches are considered a good compromise between detailed, process-based models and the application of simple balancing approaches [5]. Compared to more physically based models such as SWAT [7] and AGNPS [8], they have lower input data demands.…”

“…Compared to more physically based models such as SWAT [7] and AGNPS [8], they have lower input data demands. Conceptual models can be more easily applied to large river basins and are able to compute results quickly [5]. One disadvantage is that the empirically derived approaches cannot be transferred to other regions.…”

“…• The modeling approaches, input data, and results for nutrients are described in detail by [4][5][6]. The same information on further pollutants is documented by [6,14] and [15].…”

A Sub-Catchment Based Approach for Modelling Nutrient Dynamics and Transport at a River Basin Scale

“…Some of the tools have been improved or extended to predict nutrient level at a monthly or, daily time scale, such as, modelling tool E2 (Perraud et al 2005) and Water and Contaminant Analysis and Simulation Tools (WaterCAST) (Cook et al 2009). Similar conceptual models were developed for European catchments such as Modelling Nutrient Emissions in River Systems (MONERIS) (Venohr et al 2011). Such models are comparatively simple to build (Tzoraki et al 2014).…”