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L. Fröschl, R. Pierrard, W. Schönbäck:
"Decreasing the Nitrogen Soil Surface Surplus in the Danube River Basin by Applying Agricultural Measures: A Comparison of Cost-Effectiveness Ratios";
Talk: SAC and SEPA Biennal Conference, Edinburgh; 2006-04-05 - 2006-04-06; in: "Agriculture and the Environment VI - Managing Rural Diffuse Pollution", (2006), 34 - 40.

Agricultural production is one of the main sources of diffuse nitrogen emissions. The major issue of the present work is the economic assessment of agricultural measures to reduce the nitrogen surplus in agricultural land of selected countries in the Danube River Basin. Hence it aims at the development of a method, based on cost-effectiveness analysis, to assess the potential of `best available techniques´- measures in agricultural production to reduce the nitrogen surplus in surface soils. The national nitrogen soil surface balance is used to generate an indicator for the effectiveness value for measures. Internal costs considering the induced change in direct and indirect production costs as well as the change of gross output are calculated. Cost-effectiveness ratios are derived and used to rank the different measures considered. Although the majority of ecologically favourable measures induce costs, ecologically and economically beneficial ones are also identified.