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Improving the flexibility of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy

At a recent webinar for the Iowa Learning Farms, Dr. Kay Stefanik, assistant director of the Iowa Nutrient Research Center (INRC), shared the most recent revisions that have been made to the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (INRS) N-Load model. The INRS is a scientific assessment of the nitrogen and phosphorus in Iowa’s water that was released in 2013. The Nitrate-N Load model itself was created in order to estimate nitrate-nitrogen movement from non-point sources. Revisions have been made to allow for a finer scale in estimating nitrate loss.

The model is meant to show the direct comparisons of modeled estimates with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) water quality data collected at the watershed scale. Below is the USGS Iowa gage stations map. These four locations were chosen because they provide a wide representation of the state of Iowa and also because they have long term data available going back to the 1970s. | READ MORE