THE NITROGEN ABATEMENT COST IN WETLANDS

This paper estimates the costs of abating agricultural nitrogen pollut ion in wetlands. By linking costs for construction of wetlands to the denitrification capacity of wetlands, an abatement cost function can b e formed. A construction-cost function and a denitrification function for wetlands is estimated empirically. This paper establishes a link b etween abatement costs and the nitrogen load on wetlands. Since abatem ent costs fluctuate with nitrogen load, ignoring this link results in incorrect estimates of abatement costs. The results demonstrate that w etlands have the capacity to provide low cost abatement of nitrogen co mpounds in runoff. For the Kattegatt region in Sweden, marginal abatem ent costs for wetlands are shown to be lower than costs of land use ch anging measures, such as extended land under fallow or cultivation of fuel woods, but higher than the marginal costs of reducing nitrogen fe rtilizer. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.