Spatially detailed information on nitrogen (N) budgets is relevant to identify regions where N pollution needs to be reduced. However, consistent reliable data are generally lacking. Therefore most models applied in Europe use national or even European scale data as model input. There is lack of insight in the reduction in uncertainty that could be achieved by using higher resolution input data. For presentation at the International Nitrogen Conference in Melbourne we thus compared spatially disaggregated agricultural N budgets for Denmark for the period 2000-2010 with the Integrator model using high spatial resolution national data and default European data. The spatially disaggregated agricultural N budgets for Denmark for the period 2000-2010 were generated by the European scale model Integrator, using: (i) default European scale data (Integrator-EU) and (ii) higher spatial resolution national data for Denmark (Integrator-DK). The results showed that the manure distribution and N losses from Integrator-DK are closer to observed distributions than those from Integrator-EU.
Consequently, there is a need for collection of high resolution data from all Member States, and the further exploration of solution scenarios in the DNMARK alliance must be based on national high resolution datasets.
Danish