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Developing simple indicators to assess the role of soils in determining risks to water quality

Catchment Management
Developing simple indicators to assess the role of soils in determining risks to water quality

This project set out to explore the possibility of producing a set of four risk maps that could be used to determine the risk of diffuse pollution occurring within Scottish agricultural catchments. The key soil-based factors likely to affect water quality were deemed to be:

  • Sediment and pollutants being transported to water bodies by erosion events
  • Compaction, which reduces infiltration and may exacerbate run-off
  • Surface run-off
  • Leaching of potential pollutants

Two test catchments were chosen (the Coyle and the East Pow, both sub-catchments of SEPA’s designated priority catchments) as a related project on soil nutrient management was already using these catchments as trial areas.

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Full report: Developing simple indicators to assess the role of soils in determining risks to water quality 9.51 MB