ECONS - WGL PAKT Initiative - Evolving Complex Networks
Regional resource management under environmental and demographic change










Publications

Regional Environmental Change (2011) 10.1007/s10113-011-0270-5

Modelling changes in nitrogen emissions into the Oder River System 1875-1944

M. Gadegast, U. Hirt, D. Opitz, M. Venohr

Studies of nutrient emissions into surface waters are usually only performed for years in recent decades. However, estimating nutrient emissions for the more distant past enables us to identify the main factors responsible for the increasing nutrient contamination since the end of the nineteenth century. We focussed on the Oder River System for 1875ˆ1944, divided into 10-year periods. Nutrient emissions into surface waters were calculated with the model MONERIS (MOdelling Nutrient Emissions in RIver Systems). For seven different pathways and eight sources, the total nitrogen (TN) emissions were quantified. The TN-emissions into the surface waters for 1880 amounted to 25,300 t year−1, and by 1940, this value had almost doubled to 46,600 t year−1. In 1880, 57% of TN-emissions into the surface waters derived from urban systems, due to the high amount of untreated waste water. In 1940, only 34% of TN-emissions into surface waters derived from urba

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