In the intensive pig-farming (Sus scrofa) area of Brittany (western France), many surface and subsurface water resources are contaminated by nitrate (NO3) with concentrations that chronically exceed the European Community 50 mg L(-1) drinking standard. To ensure sustainable water supply, the fate of NO3 must be considered in both surface water and ground water. The fate of N was investigated in a Britain catchment, the Coët-Dan watershed, with an integrated management tool: the hydrological SWAT model coupled with the ground water model MODFLOW, and its companion contaminant and solute transport model MT3DMS. The model was validated with respect to water quantity during a 6-yr period and for the NO3 concentration during a 44-mo period, at two gauging stations in the catchment. The coupled models reproduced accurately the measurements. At the basin outlet, the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients were 0.88 for monthly flow for the entire period and 0.87 for monthly N load. Alternative scenarios were simulated and showed potential benefits of decreasing manure application from 210 to 170 kg N ha(-1) as required by the European Commission Nitrates Directive.
a b s t r a c t Tourism has the potential to make a major contribution to the development of rural areas. However, empirical evidence suggests that its economic impact is limited, because rural visitors are thought to engage in few recreational activities and are seen as low spenders. This study gives new insights into the domestic demand in areas of France described as "rural", with data extracted from the national database provided by the French "tourism demand survey". The results of the "activity-based segmentation" of visitors' stays in three rural regions show that during the summer season, visits to friends or relatives, which involve little expenditure and no specific activities, continue to take place. However, more expensive stays are the most common. They involve activities aimed at experiencing the outdoors or enjoying local sights, based on natural and cultural amenities that are mainly located in regional natural parks. The main forms of accommodation are campsites and rural cottages. Gastronomic tourism has also emerged as an activity that attracts higher spending visitors. These findings are discussed in relation to the results of segmentation studies in other European countries. Their academic and management implications also are presented.
Abstract. The impact of implementing different best management practices (BMPs) at the 1 small watershed scale were examined for the Petzenkirchen catchment in Austria and Lake 2 Vico in Italy, in terms of data needs, hydrological processes, tools and models involved.
This paper deals with policy mechanism designs for agri-environnemental schemes when the bio-physical processes are characterized by threshold effects. There is a threshold effect when specified farming practices must be applied on a minimal share of an area of interest to trigger perceptible changes of the state of the natural environment. Schemes result in a pure economic loss if the induced agro-environmental efforts are not sufficient. Different situations are considered including the lack of information on farmers' characteristics or actions, uncertainty on the relationship between farming practices and environmental quality, and combined difficulties of scheme design.
20 21In this paper a set of criteria is proposed for the evaluation of the potential contribution of modelling 22 tools to strengthening the multifunctionality of agriculture. The four main areas of evaluation are (1) 23 policy relevance, (2) the temporal resolution and scope, (3) the degree to which spatial and socio-24 institutional scales and heterogeneity are addressed and (4) and environmental quality. Co-Viability Analysis generates viable trajectories of changes in farming 2 activities within a given set of constraints, to reach a desired future. In the application implemented in 3 the project, co-viability analysis focuses on grassland grazed by cattle which is also the breeding 4 habitat of two wader species at field level. 5The three modelling approaches differ in their policy relevance, in the ways that spatial and socio-6 institutional scales are addressed and in their levels of integration, but jointly cover most of the desired 7 capabilities for assessment of multifunctionality. Caveats were particularly identified in the integration 8 of the socio-institutional dimension and the related heterogeneity. Although the model portfolio did 9 not completely satisfy the demands of the of the set of evaluative criteria, it is concluded that, due to 10 their complementarities, in combination the three models could significantly contribute to further 11 development and strengthening of multifunctionality. 12 13
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