Can the SPARROW model be used to evaluate trends in stream contaminant loads?
|Back to Top| Past SPARROW models have been developed to describe mean annual water-quality loads for a specified base year (see question #8 above) and have not been used to describe trend or changes over time in stream loads. However, on-going research is focused on developing SPARROW models of decadal and seasonal changes in stream loads. Models of decadal changes will assume that sources, processes, and stream loads are in steady state during each modeled 10-year period. Therefore, these models provide an opportunity to assess how much of the change in stream loads results from changes in contaminant inputs from various sources (e.g., wastewater treatment discharges, fertilizer application) vs. how much arises from underlying changes in processes and human activities that may alter the rates of contaminant delivery to streams (e.g., agricultural conservation practices, soil nutrient mineralization).
