Dep. of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, The Pennsylvania State Univ., 111D Ferguson Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Dep. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Univ. of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., ENG 030, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA.
J Environ Qual. 2020 May;49(3):517-533. doi: 10.1002/jeq2.20022. Epub 2020 Mar 23.
Nutrient pollution is considered a wicked problem because of its many significant economic, social, and environmental impacts that are caused by multiple pollutants originating from a variety of sources and pathways that exist across different temporal and spatial scales. Further adding to the difficulty in managing nutrient pollution is that it is a global, rural, and urban problem. A systems approach can improve nutrient management by incorporating technological, environmental, and societal considerations. This approach can consider valuation of monetized and nonmonetized co-benefits and the inherent consequences that make up a nutrient management program. In this introduction to a special collection of papers on nutrient pollution, we describe several systems frameworks that can be used to support nutrient management and evaluation of system performance as it relates to impacts, then highlight several attributes and barriers of nutrient management that point to the need for a systems framework, and conclude with thoughts on implementing systems approaches to nutrient management with effective community engagement and use of new technologies. This special collection presents results from a USEPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) initiative to advance solutions to nutrient pollution through innovative and sustainable research and demonstration projects for nutrient management based on a systems approach. These studies evaluate several promising nutrient control technologies for stormwater or domestic wastewater, investigate the effects of agricultural conservation practices and stream restoration strategies on nutrient loads, and discuss several challenges and opportunities-social, policy, institutional, and financial considerations-that can accelerate adoption of reliable technologies to achieve system-level outcomes.
营养物污染被认为是一个棘手的问题，因为它存在于不同的时间和空间尺度，由多种来源和途径的多种污染物引起，会造成许多重大的经济、社会和环境影响。此外，营养物污染是一个全球性的、农村和城市的问题，这使得管理它变得更加困难。系统方法可以通过纳入技术、环境和社会因素来改善营养物管理。这种方法可以考虑货币化和非货币化的共同效益的评估以及构成营养物管理计划的固有后果。在这篇关于营养物污染的特刊论文的介绍中，我们描述了几种系统框架，可以用于支持营养物管理和系统性能的评估，因为它与影响有关，然后强调营养物管理的几个属性和障碍，指出需要一个系统框架，并以关于实施营养物管理的系统方法的思考结束，包括有效的社区参与和利用新技术。本特刊介绍了美国环保署通过基于系统方法的创新和可持续的研究和示范项目，以推进营养物污染解决方案的科学取得成果（STAR）计划的结果。这些研究评估了几种有前途的雨水或家庭废水的营养物控制技术，调查了农业保护措施和溪流恢复策略对营养负荷的影响，并讨论了一些社会、政策、制度和财务方面的挑战和机遇，这些因素可以加速可靠技术的采用，以实现系统层面的成果。
