This repo contains data and code for estimating climate benefits of nutrient management. A summary of the results and methods can be found in the summary document scripts/Climate-Benefits-of-Nutrient-Management.html.
Abstract: Eutrophication in lakes and reservoirs contributes to emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Water management policies that reduce nutrient loadings also reduce eutrophication and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These reductions in GHG emissions have not, to date, been considered when evaluating the costs and benefits of a proposed policy. We integrate biophysical and economic models to estimate the previously unquantified climate benefits of a large nutrient management program in the northeastern United States. The climate benefits of the policy are estimated to be between $207 million to 484 million (2020USD, 2% discount rate) over the first 50 years of the management program. Our estimates suggest that reductions in GHG emissions from nutrient management programs should be taken into account in helping to meet regional, national, and global GHG mitigation goals.
R is free and available for download here. The RStudio integrated development environment is useful for replication, it is free and available for download here. R is used for the entirety of the analysis.
Optional: Github is free and available for download here. Github is used to house this repository and by installing and using it to clone the repository one will simplify the replication procedure. However, a user could also simply download a zipped file version of this repository, unzip in the desired location and follow the replication procedures outlined below.
Begin by cloning this repository. This can be done by clicking on the green "code" button in this repository and following those instructions, or by navigating in the terminal via the command line to the desired location of the cloned repository and then typing:
git clone https://github.com/USEPA/climateBenefits.gitAlternatively, you can make a fork of this repository. This allows for developemnt on the fork while preserving its relationship with this repository.
The software code contained within this repository is made available under the MIT license. The data and figures are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.