Nitrogen Abatement Cost Functions in Jiulong River Basin

XU Jia-yin;College of Environment and Ecology,Xiamen University;

Nutrient abatement;;Cost function;;Jiulong River Basin

Nutrient enrichment that leads to eutrophication is one of the major environmental problems in the world. More than half of rivers,lakes and coastal water-bodies are confronting the challenge of eutrophication. The study of nutrients abatement cost functions in river basins has become the focus field in academic and management communities because of increasingly serious environmental and economic damage resulted from nutrient pollution. This paper developed the methodologies for establishing abatement cost functions of different nutrients abatement measures in small and middle river basins. These cost functions of different abatement measures in different sub-basins are established in Jiulong River Basin employing the developed models. The results demonstrate that the abatement costs vary significantly among abatement measures. The abatement cost of reducing nitrogen fertilizer use is the lowest. Meanwhile,the abatement costs in the developed sub-basins with higher agriculture economic rents are higher than that of less-developed river basins. Besides the abatement costs,the scale limit of each abatement measure should be considered when choosing suitable nutrients abatement measures.