Watershed Model and Tool Decision Support

There are several models and tools that State agencies, university staff, and local government staff utilize to measure outcomes for pollution reduction benefits in agricultural watersheds in Minnesota. The mechanisms and scales at which these tools are built on are slightly to drastically different. It is important to have a stronger grasp on the similarities and differences of the individual platform outputs as it relates to runoff calculations, pollutant travel time and attenuation, soil and suspended sediment, and total nutrient yields across various watersheds and eco regions, and the approach taken to evaluate economic impacts and implementation costs. An increased understanding of these interrelationships will be helpful for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and agency partners in providing guidance on current use of the tools and understand future work that is needed to better integrate them.