Risks versus Costs: A New Approach for Assessment of Diffuse Water Pollution Abatement

Abstract: Complex problems require innovative methods to deal with them. Diffuse pollution, which is aprimary reason for deterioration of many surface and groundwater bodies, has yet to obtain areliable solution. This work is designated to be a part of such solution, which is to provide avaluable approach to manage inland surface water diffuse pollution problem. It is especiallydesigned for decision makers responsible for implementation of Water Framework Directive. Thekey aspects of this approach are the integrating Environmental Risk Assessment and Cost-Effectiveness Assessment, which is a part of the framework used to evaluate diffuse pollutionabatement measures. An extensive literature review has been made to examine integrationpossibilities in a wider perspective. Accomplishing this objective four separate topics wereevaluated: review of watershed modeling approaches, Environmental Risk Assessment and Cost-Effectiveness Assessment in diffuse pollution problem solution, review of Lithuanian and Europeanlegislation on controlling the inland surface water diffuse pollution, inland water diffuse pollutionabatement measures. Knowledge obtained from literature has been used to set a modeling partessential to demonstrate application of the integration method. SWAT model has been selected asthe assessment tool to analyze diffuse pollution abatement measures for Graisupis river catchment,located in middle Lithuania. Two abatement measures (wetlands and winter crops) have beenselected and evaluated. Finally, a risk reduction of not meeting environmental targets from thebaseline scenario has been calculated and plotted against cost of each abatement measure. This is asimple way of providing valuable information needed for investments in abatement anduncertainties related to it, which are particularly important for decision makers working with diffusepollution problems.