| Economists often rely on stylised models for analysis of environmental policies. This study demonstrates that abstracting from soil and topography can have profound effect on marginal abatement costs of nutrient loads. By extending earlier bioeconomic models to represent heterogeneous soils and slopes, it is possible to show that targeting the abatement methods on high load risk areas allows low cost reduction. Ignoring the heterogeneity can lead to significant overestimates of the abatement costs and hence to misleading policy recommendations. The results hold even for relatively Flat areas, such as the watershed of River Kalajoki, for which the model was applied to. |
