How good is good enough

Excerpt

WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW FOR WATER QUALITY PLANNING AND HOW DO WE GET IT?

Producers want to know the trade-offs before adopting different conservation management systems. Unfortunately, running simulation models is the only practical way to provide such information. This is a problem because conservationists don't have the time or interest to regularly perform such integrated modeling. A possible solution is the development of a suite of tools, so that modeling specialists could create a database of effects on typical fields to be used by conservationists and producers. Although the information would not be perfect, could it be good enough to provide water quality information for planning purposes?

Imagine a farmer in a watershed with agriculturally related water quality problems, willing to consider changing his or her management practices to help resolve the problems in the watershed. First, the farmer needs a rough understanding of the quantity of contaminants leaving his or her fields. Nonpoint source pollution is difficult to observe. The farmer's focus will be on the business of the farm, not offsite water quality issues. Before adopting a different management system, the farmer would want to understand the tradeoffs that he …