Potential nitrogen load from crop-livestock systems: A spatial database for a multi-scale assessment and mapping

The EU “Water” Directive establishes a common European framework for the environmental protection of inland, coastal and marine waters. One of the major environmental concerns about water quality is certainly the N loads from agro-livestock systems. In this study, carried out in Umbria region, Italy, a novel spatial database for a multi-scale and multi-level analysis was designed and implemented integrating different agricultural and livestock farming datasets related to agro-livestock system. This database allows the calculation of different descriptive indicators about agricultural and livestock farming systems at different scales of investigation (NVZ, sub-basins, bodies of groundwater, cadastral sheets, municipalities, provinces, entire region). Moreover, three relevant spatial indicators (potential nitrogen crop supply, potential nitrogen availability from livestock manure, and total potential nitrogen loads) were calculated applying an assessment model developed in the study. All this information appears very significant to support decision making at the various administrative levels and to pursue the environmental objectives established by EU and national regulations.