BONUS RETURN will use a participatory modelling approach through the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). This tool was developed to predict the impacts of land management practices on hydrological regimes and the loading of surface waters in complex watersheds over long periods of time.
Specific information from each of BONUS RETURN’s case studies on weather, soil, topography, vegetation and land management, will be introduced into the model to assess the processes associated with water and sediment movement, plant growth, nutrient cycling, etc.
Results from SWAT are relatively clear and univocal, showing changes in leaching (kg per time unit) of nutrients and carbon as a result of various scenarios. Interpretation of the results will be formulated in a transparent and comprehensible way and presented to stakeholders in each of the cases in Finland, Sweden and Poland.
In fact, the complexity of the model may allow for observing a variety of phenomena –in the examination of the results. Thus, the results of the model are more credible than those of simpler models, in which different processes are not described as thoroughly.
