How (not) to produce detailed farm management inventories for landscape scale nitrogen modelling

Landscape-scale modelling of nitrogen (N) flows requires detailed input data on agricultural management activities at the level of individual farms and fields. As part of the NitroEurope IP (www.nitroeurope.eu), a common model was constructed across all components of the landscape (atmosphere, hydrosphere, ecosystems, farms) and applied to six study landscapes (up to ~5km x 5km) in Europe. This required a systematic approach to data collection that allowed efficient data capture and organisation, and that facilitated collaboration from as many farmers as possible, for all six landscapes. A common approach was necessary that respected the differences between the local agricultural, social and cultural conditions of study areas as diverse as France, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Scotland and Denmark. This paper summarizes the approach taken in the project (including previous experience with similar work), draws lessons from the experiences of the teams undertaking the survey in the six landscapes and makes suggestions for improvements to the methodology for future surveys