Monetary Valuation with Impact Pathway Analysis: Benefits of Reducing Nitrate Leaching in European Catchments

Integrated assessment frameworks which can account comprehensively for the benefits related to water quality improvements have not yet been established. The main challenge is to link economic valuation with hydrological data in an appropriate way. We here explore the so-called ‘impact pathway approach’ as a novel analytical method in the area of water management. It can identify site- and catchment-specific benefits associated with management measures by linking economic and hydrological data through consecutive modelling stages, allowing for monetization of specific end point effects. This bottom-up methodology generates different results for different catchments. We explore damages of nitrate pollution in six European catchments within a framework that addresses surface water quality as well as water as a healthy resource for abstraction of drinking water. It is a first attempt with this method to address diffuse agricultural pollution, focusing on priority pathways.