Overview & Objectives
Overview
Assessment of the potential for P delivery from agricultural land to surface waters is important in developing management plans for reducing P losses to surface waters. The assessment should enable producers and other agribusiness professionals to identify high risk areas, diagnose major causes of P loss, and evaluate the effectiveness of alternative management practices.
This lesson addresses the assessment of potential for P delivery to surface waters resulting from the interaction of the source and transport factors addressed in Lessons II and III. The basic concepts and applications of P indexes as risk assessment tools are explored.
Objectives
Upon completing this lesson, a student should be able to:
1. Discuss the 'critical source area concept' relative to P delivery to surface waters.
2. Understand and be able to use two P indexes for risk assessment.
3. Determine the effects of different management practices on the estimated risk of P loss from agricultural land.
Copyright 2005
Development of this lesson was supported, in part, by a University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension grant. A contribution of the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension, Journal Series 1074. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s).