Integrated assessment of potential impacts on water and soil related ecosystem services due to the European Common Agricultural Policy

The Integrated Tools for Economic and Ecological Modelling (ITE 2 M) were applied to estimate soil and water related landscape services and their changes due to several reforms of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the Dill catchment, Germany. The catchment is characterized by low agricultural production potential. Hence, the CAP reform provides new aspects of agricultural production in this region, as landscape services other than those that produce yield are now subsidized. As part of ITE 2 M, the agro-economic model ProLand was used to predict agricultural and forest production systems and their economic performances. The model accounts for different natural, technical, economic and political boundary conditions and delivers spatially differentiated land use maps that are used to calculate further landscape services. The eco-hydrological model SWAT simulates the effects of the CAP on water and nutrient fluxes. The ATOMIS model predicts the fate of heavy metals in top soils and compares them to respective thresholds for sustainable soil management.