Total nitrogen concentration modeling for European river basins

Abstract

The aim of this research was to develop a total nitrogen (TN) concentration model for surface waters in Europe. Model development was based on literature study on nitrogen sources, processes, and exisitng models, and it was based on available data on N emissions. The result is a static and data based model, and simulates TN in annual average concentrations at basin outlets of major rivers in the EU-15 area including Poland. For about half of the catchments the model results showed a deviation of smaller than 20%. The majority of the results stayed between minimum and maximum measured TN concentrations. For a model with simplistic representation of N transport pathways and transformation processes the model performance was found reasonable. Suggestions for model improvement are: finding better quality data for estimating agricultural and industrial nitrogen emissions and to describe nitrogen retention as a function of basin characteristics such as temperature or water residence time.