Watershed Nitrogen Reduction Planning Tool (NBMP.xlsm) for Comparing the Economics of Practices to Reduce Watershed Nitrogen Loads

The Watershed Nitrogen Reduction Planning Tool (file name NBMP.xlsm) Excel spreadsheet was developed under a contract between the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the University of Minnesota, as part of a comprehensive study of surface water nitrogen conditions, sources, pathways to waters, trends and solutions. The project purpose was to develop a framework for a watershed nitrogen planning aid that could be used to compare and optimize selection of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for reducing the nitrogen load from the highest contributing sources and pathways in a watershed. NBMP.xlsm is intended to serve as that framework. It compares the effectiveness and cost of potential BMPs that could be implemented to reduce the nitrogen load entering surface waters from cropland in a watershed. This spreadsheet is intended for use by resource planners evaluating how nitrogen loads in the watershed can be reduced by a certain amount. Such resource planners would normally not be the crop producers who would actually be deciding whether or not to implement any of the practices listed. One use for the spreadsheet might be to help decide the levels of subsidies or other incentives to offer to the producers who would be making such implementation decisions.""