Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461

www.elsevier.com/locate/jhydrol

Modelling and managing critical source areas of diffuse pollution

from agricultural land using flow connectivity simulation
A.L. Heathwaitea,*, P.F. Quinnb,1, C.J.M. Hewettb
a
Centre for Sustainable Water Management, The Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK
b
School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Cassie Building, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
Received 30 November 2003; revised 1 May 2004; accepted 1 July 2004

Abstract
A combined critical source area and flow accumulation model is described that predicts the spatial distribution in the risk of
diffuse nutrient losses from agricultural fields reaching surface waters. The model is applied to a number of agricultural fields
under a range of different land management scenarios. The model output highlights the importance of land management
features such as tramlines, tracks and field drains in concentrating flow towards receiving waters and in increasing the risk of the
delivery of pollutants derived from diffuse agricultural sources to watercourses. The model allows scenario analysis of the
likely impact of flow path mitigation on diffuse nutrient loads.
q 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Phosphorus; Diffuse pollution; Runoff; Terrain analysis; Critical source areas

1. Introduction widespread, intermittent, and poorly defined contami-

The degradation of soil and water quality by
nutrients originating from agriculture is an inter-
national environmental issue (Soil Science Society of
America, 2000). Dealing with this issue is not
straightforward because the agricultural contribution
to diffuse pollution varies widely as a complex
function of soil type, climate, topography, hydrology,
land use and land management. This creates
* Corresponding author. Fax: C44 1524 510217.
E-mail addresses: louise.heathwaite@lancs.ac.uk (A.L. Heathwaite),
p.f.quinn@ncl.ac.uk (P.F. Quinn).
1
Fax: C44 191 222 6502.
0022-1694/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.07.043
nant sources that degrade water quality in a way that
makes their control difficult. Consequently, although
significant improvements in water quality have been
achieved in recent years as a result of major
investment focussed on reducing point source dis-
charges of pollution, these improvements expose the
underlying effects of diffuse pollution on aquatic
ecosystems, and highlight the increasing relative
contribution of diffuse agricultural pollution sources.
Addressing diffuse pollution issues is necessary in
order to comply with the EC Water Framework
Directive (2000/60/EC). This legislation assesses the
risks from all human activity, and combines them with
information on the sensitivity to the identified
 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
pressures (e.g. nutrients), to identify those water-
bodies at risk of failing to meet the Directives
environmental objectives.
In identifying waterbodies at risk from human
activities leading to diffuse pollution, a major gap
in current knowledge is how nutrients are retained
within complex landscapes and released to adjacent
streams via surface and subsurface flow paths.
There are multiple loss-pathways for nutrients from
fields, and unpredictable reactions and attenuation
of these nutrients (and eroded soil) can occur
beyond the application zone of, for example,
inorganic fertilisers and manures. Consequently,
the mobilisation and fate of pollutants within and
from agricultural fields is a major challenge to
research on nutrient pollution.
To meet this challenge it is necessary to identify
the key landscape and land management factors
driving nutrient mobilisation (e.g. bare soil, fresh
applications of manures and fertilisers, high rainfall
and vulnerable soils). Integrating these factors with
a methodology for field characterisation allows the
primary flow paths of nutrient transport to be
identified. For example, in primarily surface
systems, field characterisation would focus on
surface runoff, flow in tramlines and tyre tracks,
and flow along roads or other impermeable
features; in subsurface systems, land drains, near-
surface interflow, deeper subsurface storm flow and
groundwater flow are important characteristics.
Similarly, flow convergence, divergence and the
interaction of flow with man-made features can be
represented using basic hydrological assumptions.
Through field characterisation it is possible to
identify critical source areas (CSA) within the
landscape whereby any zone, from a small area
trampled or poached by cattle to a whole field that
is underdrained, may be classed as a CSA if there
is a significant source of nutrient input and flow
from that land is in direct connection with the
receiving waters.
In this paper, we examine the contribution that
diffuse agricultural sources make to nutrient pollution
in watercourses and the role of soil and hydrology in
the generation of this risk. We describe a modelling
tool we have developed to demonstrate the hydro-
logical drivers of diffuse pollution. We also evaluate
the hydrological engineering approaches that might be
447
adopted to mitigate this risk at a practical level so that
it may be disseminated for farm management. The
modelling tool adopts a new visualisation method-
ology: TopManage (www.ncl.ac.uk/wrgi/TOPCAT/
TopMan) that allows field characterisation to be
undertaken in a systematic manner by combining high
resolution mapping and terrain analysis (Hewett and
Quinn, 2004). TopManage is used, along with the field
runoff characterisation, to help identify CSAs. The
approach allows the impact of natural topographic and
man-made features on hydrological flow paths and
nutrient transport to be evaluated. From here it is
possible to identify a number of simple and affordable
changes to land use and/or land management practices
that can disconnect, store and buffer nutrient transport
along the dominant flow path trajectory. The approach
is one of runoff management at source. The modelling
tool refines earlier work on the sources, pathways and
delivery of P from diffuse agricultural land to water
described by Heathwaite et al. (2003a) and the P Index
approach described by Heathwaite et al. (2003b).
Here we use examples, based on the EPSRC SEAL
project (www.shef.ac.uk/seal), which is looking at the
environmental risk of sewage sludge recycling to
agricultural land, to show how the vulnerability of
agricultural fields to nutrient losses can be identified
using the modelling tool and minimised by under-
taking practical, small-scale flow engineering
measures.
The research reported here is of relevance in
defining local water quality objectives as necessary
under the EU water framework directive (WFD).
Implementation of the WFD requires an assessment of
the risks from human activity, such as nutrient loss
from agricultural land to water. Part of the process for
undertaking the risk assessment requires an assess-
ment of diffuse agricultural P pressures. Such
pressures comprise both the sources of P and the
hydrological pathways by which it is routed to
watercourses. Whereas there has been considerable
focus on attempts to reduce P source pressures (e.g.
Heathwaite and Sharpley, 1999) it has often been
assumed that there is little that can be done to
manipulate the P transport pathways to reduce the
overall P load delivered to water. Here we describe an
approach that helps identify the potential value of flow
path manipulation in reducing diffuse P pressures on
receiving waters.
448 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
2. Background
2.1. Nutrient sources in the landscape
There is close coupling between land and water
quality (Arbuckle and Downing, 2001; Engstrom et
al., 2000) because the washout of nutrients from decay
and diagenesis in the soil is a significant source of
nutrients and cations (Markewitz et al., 2001). Added
to these background losses are diffuse nutrient sources
linked to changes in land use practice, population
densities, agricultural practices and urban develop-
ment (Carpenter et al., 1998; Harris, 2001). Phos-
phorus (P) in particular, is pivotal in the ecology of
freshwater environments: it accounts for 24% of the
dry weight of most cells, and the Redfield ratio
(106C:15N:1P by atoms, Redfield, 1958) demon-
strates that small increases in P in freshwaters will
enhance plant growth and accelerate eutrophication.
The typical loss of P to water from agricultural land
is estimated at 1 kg haK1 yrK1 for the UK, with
around 26 kg haK1 yrK1 accumulating in the soil
from manure and inorganic fertiliser applications,
forming a reservoir for future P loss to water (Defra,
2002). Agricultural losses of P have increased from
around 0.62 kg ha K1 yr K1 in the 1930s to
1.24 kg haK1 yrK1 in the 1990s (Defra, 2002).
Haygarth and Jarvis (1998) estimate that unless
agricultural land management practices are modified,
the soil P reservoir may double in the next 30 years.
This increases the potential for off-site movement of P
because P thresholds are exceeded and soil buffering
capacity is overridden. While only a small fraction of
this reservoir is mobile, the potential ecological
impact is high. Solubilisation of P from soil surfaces
and soil biota into soil water increases with increasing
soil P (e.g. Heckrath et al., 1995), and detachment of
sediment-associated P at the soil surface is encour-
aged where farming practices generate soil erosion
(e.g. Kronvang, 1990).
2.2. The spatial dynamics of nutrient export from land
to water
Surface waters differ in their sensitivity to nutrient
inputs; and the factors controlling the transport of
nutrients to a water body, for example, slope,
drainage, soil and crop management practice, are at
least as important, if not more so, than the nutrient
reservoir (the actual amount of extractable or total
nutrients) in a soil (Kamprath et al., 2000). The
contributing area for diffuse pollutants derived from
agricultural sources depends on the coincidence of
source (soil, crop and management) and transport
(runoff, erosion and channel processes) factors (e.g.
Heathwaite et al., 2000). The biochemical reactivity
and mobility of different nutrients determines the
spatial extent of this contributing area and the degree
of environmental risk. Much of the water and nutrient
runoff from catchments comes from relatively small
areas and over relatively short time periods (e.g.
Dillon and Molot, 1997; Pionke et al., 2000).
For P, source areas may be defined by high soil P
status and/or agricultural land uses that increase
surface P concentrations (e.g. intensive grazing;
some arable crops) but because P is primarily
transported in surface runoff, not all land has an
equal risk of contributing P to receiving waters.
Surface runoff generated by infiltration-excess flow
should be rare on agricultural land in the UK.
However, land management practices that damage
the soil surface (e.g. Heathwaite et al., 1989, 1990)
through deeper compaction and soil degradation and
soil capping may be a significant source of polluting
flow. The frequencies of runoff and erosion events are
thought to be spatially limited and may be confined to
higher rainfall events (e.g. Heathwaite and Dils,
2000). However, when they do occur, sheet or interrill
erosion transports more P than rill or gully erosion
alone, because it mobilises nutrient-enriched topsoil,
manure, and plant residues. By contrast, gully erosion
transports more nutrient-poor subsoil (Gillingham and
Thorrold, 2000). Surface runoff generated by satur-
ation-excess flow is driven from spatially and
temporally dynamic variable source areas (e.g.
Beven and Wood, 1983) and requires lower rainfall
intensities for its initiation and can provide the
hydrological connectivity to make potential P source
areas into critical source areas (CSAs) where source
and transport coincide. Surface runoff has a strong
affinity for P transport because the surface soil has the
greatest effective depth of interaction (EDI) (Ahuja,
1986; Sharpley, 1985) and the highest concentrations
of P (Haygarth et al., 1998).
Given that UK agricultural practices are dominated
by winter arable crops, intense livestock densities
 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
and high frequency of storm events, there is a high
likelihood of erosive rainfall falling on bare or
degraded soil. Therefore, each year the risk of a
localised acute pollution incident is high and practical
measures to ameliorate this risk have been a priority
for land use management (e.g. the UK Code of Good
Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Soil,
MAFF, 1998). Understanding and implementing
measures to minimise chronic pollution are also
important, but such events are often characterised by
more diffuse, slower subsurface flowpaths where
control measures are more difficult to implement.
Added to this, the UK has extensive areas of under-
drained land that may accelerate the delivery of
nutrients from land to water. In regions where
subsurface flow pathways dominate, areas contribut-
ing P to drainage waters appear to be localised to soils
with high soil P saturation and hydraulic connectivity
in near-surface or convergent flow to receiving waters
(e.g. Heathwaite and Dils, 2000). The exception is
where soils are deep and the bedrock permeable, in
which case percolation to groundwater rather than
channelling of flow laterally will occur. The rate of P
flux will depend on whether matrix or preferential
flow predominates. Some soils, such as cracking
clays, have a greater preponderance of macropores
and hence more channelling of subsurface flow via
this pathway. Similarly, artificial land drainage
encourages rapid transit of water from land to stream.
Here, P loss is influenced by soil type (stability), soil
total P and excess winter rainfall (Chambers, 1997).
2.3. Modelling critical source areas for nutrients
in agricultural landscapes
As more sophisticated techniques to study and
model the fate and transport of nutrients from land to
water become available, it should be possible to
identify CSAs in the landscape where nutrient losses
are most significant and to prioritise efforts to reduce
these losses. The approaches available for represent-
ing the spatial variations in nutrient losses across
catchments include lumped, distributed or topological
representations. Selection of a suitable approach is
dependent largely on the quality of the available data,
with distributed models requiring detailed field data to
capture the true variation in the catchment accurately,
449
while lumped approaches aggregate point scale
dynamics and risk losing many crucial spatial factors.
Recently, topological representations of catchment
processes using GIS-based models have become more
popular as the basis to decision support systems for
catchment management. Such approaches have been
used to examine large scale catchment nutrient
processes (e.g. Viney et al., 2000; Cassell et al.,
2001) but with the exception of Quinn and Anthony
(1999) and Dannowski et al. (this volume), have not
been used widely at the field to hillslope scale, which
is the scale at which agricultural land management
decisions need to be made in order to introduce
mitigation strategies. The concept of CSAs operates
best at the hillslope (15 ha) to small catchment (up to
20 ha) scale where topography, soil and land manage-
ment are key controls on diffuse nutrient export. It is
also at this scale that the temporal and spatial
dynamics of source area and connectivity to receiving
waters can be addressed. This is probably best-
achieved using a simple, quasi-physical model that
reflects the likely functioning of the contributing
source areas, land management features and flow
volumes driving the transport of nutrients from diffuse
sources. Whilst much effort has concentrated on
reducing the total nutrient loadings in the soil, the
ability to transport diffuse pollutants is largely
independent of such source control, although clearly
they provide the potential for nutrient loss. The
delivery of diffuse pollutants to water may be
managed by reducing the availability of nutrients for
mobilisation at source and/or by altering runoff
flowpaths to such an extent that nutrients can be
buffered or stripped from the flow.
This paper focuses on furthering our understanding
of the controls on nutrient transport using the CSA
conceptual model coupled to terrain analysis to
identify zones in the landscape where nutrients should
not be applied and also locations where nutrients
could be preferentially trapped (and potentially
reused).
2.4. Earlier research on critical source areas
Johnes and Heathwaite (1997) used a simple
distance-decay function to model the impact of land
use change on nutrient concentrations in streams
draining the Slapton catchment, southwest England.
450 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
They argued that nutrient contributing areas greater
than 50 m from the drainage network were less
important than near-stream zones owing to attenu-
ation and uptake of nutrients during downslope
transit. Subsequent work by Gburek et al. (2000) on
the CSA concept defined the spatial criteria for source
activity and combined them with the type and activity
of runoff flow path generation. Further work by
Heathwaite et al. (2000) sought to evaluate the key
factors controlling the transport of P and nitrogen (N)
in agricultural landscapes by comparing the spatial
distribution of P and N losses in surface and
subsurface flow paths. The approach was calibrated
on a study catchment in Pennsylvania, USA. The
work highlighted the differences in the main hydro-
logical drivers of nutrient transport for these two
elements. For P, the width of the near-stream zone
producing surface runoff was estimated using a
contributing area function that was validated against
catchment data for different stream reaches (Gburek et
al., 2000). The contributing area function produced a
distinct zonation of P loss because, for the study
catchment, the risk of P delivery in surface runoff
decreased with increasing distance from the stream.
The P zonation reflected the spatial variation in
saturation-excess surface runoff where a rising stream
water level in response to storm flow resulted in a
rising water table in near-stream zones, initiating P
transport in surface runoff. The initiation of surface
runoff from areas some distance from the stream
required large magnitude storms, which have a long
return period; hence the probability of surface runoff
generation is low in such areas. Not all the near-
stream zone was found to have a high risk of P loss
because the high water table in much of this area
meant that it was relatively low-grade agricultural
land and as such received lower fertiliser and manure
inputs than other catchment areas. The CSA concept
is able to pick out such subtleties. However, in
catchments with more complex hydrology, for
example, with converging flow in hillslope hollows,
the relationship between P delivery and distance from
receiving waters would be less straightforward.
The distribution of N loss differs from that of P
because N transport risk, at least in the study
catchment used by Heathwaite et al. (2000), corre-
sponded with soil permeability rather than distance
from receiving waters. In contrast to P, near-stream
zones have a low vulnerability to N loss (as nitrate)
because the soils had a high clay content, low
permeability, and form discharge zones during most
events.
The spatial variation in the risk of P and N loss on a
field by field scale can be evaluated using a nutrient
index that combines source and transport factors, and
is described for the above US study site by Heathwaite
et al. (2000), with further developments for European
catchments by Heathwaite et al. (2003b). Using this
index, the risk of P or N loss is high only if both source
and transport factors coincide. For P, where surface
runoff is a significant pathway of P transport, high risk
areas appear to be confined to a few key CSAs.
However, where very high source factors (e.g. fields
receiving high levels of animal manures) coincide
with a moderate transport risk the index will predict a
high vulnerability to P loss. Relative to P, a much
larger area (60%) of the study catchment had a
medium to high vulnerability to N loss. Critical source
areas for N are both less well defined and less
important relative to P. Localised N hotspots
coincide with fields where manure inputs are high
and N enrichment enhances the potential for N loss.
The differences in the pathways of diffuse N and P
transport mean that different mitigation strategies
must be applied in order to minimise losses. In some
instances, the strategies can work for one nutrient but
be detrimental to the other (Heathwaite and Sharpley,
1999; Heathwaite et al., 2000). Evaluating the most
cost-effective and environmentally strategic approach
is important (e.g. Johnes and Heathwaite, 1997). More
accurate prediction of the transport pathways and the
likely outcomes of manipulating the flowpaths
through environmental engineering are important
and are evaluated in more detail below.
The transport mapping approach used by
Heathwaite et al. (2000) to demonstrate the CSA
concept does not realistically predict flow paths at the
field to small catchment scale. Consequently, the
transport element of the CSA approach remains
limited. However, the use of a flow path simulation
tool can significantly improve the quality of the
prediction of the transport-associated risk of diffuse
nutrient export from agricultural land. The tool allows
land management features such as tramlines, land
drains and surface soil capping to be included in the
evaluation of risk. To function effectively, the model
 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
depends on using the flow path simulation tool in
conjunction with a field characterisation exercise.
Here we report research from the EPSRC SEAL
project (www.shef.ac.uk/seal) where flow path visu-
alisation has been undertaken in combination with
detailed P characterisation (Heathwaite et al., 2003c;
Burke et al., 2003). More rudimentary visual assess-
ment of the land (especially following storms) or
interviews with farmers (who have excellent qualitat-
ive evidence) can also help assess the most pressing
landscape features associated with polluting incidents
in agricultural catchments. Even if the absolute
pollution risk cannot be assessed, some form of
precautionary runoff management may be desirable
on many intensely farmed fields.
3. Approach
3.1. Hillslope flow connectivity modelling
TopManage is a flow terrain analysis model driven
by a topographic digital elevation model (DEM) that
allows the dominant flow paths to be represented,
evaluated and subsequently modified for the purposes
of runoff management. The terrain analysis method
used here is based on the multiple-flow accumulation
algorithm (Quinn et al., 1991, 1995) to give natural
surface or subsurface flow patterns. Traditionally this
type of topographic information has been used to
study the operation of VSAs (Quinn and Beven, 1993)
and complements the simple VSA study described by
Heathwaite et al. (2000). The flow connectivity model
simulates connectivity between land and stream by
combining existing surface and subsurface flow
assumptions with high resolution digital terrain
analysis. This can be used to distinguish between
surface, subsurface lateral, drain flow and ditch flow
accumulation. Here, three examples of UK farming
practices are presented: (1) a sloping arable field
dominated by overland flow from bare soil, (2) a
drained arable field, and (3) a field dominated by
subsurface flow (with some drains) where runoff in
the local ditch is simulated. Improving our under-
standing of the implications of land management
practices such as these examples is critical we are to
be able to define adequately local water quality
objectives as required under the WFD. The need to do
451
this objectively and across all river basins in the UK
means that we need to develop and apply appropriate
models that can link the agricultural sources of
transported of nutrients to land management practices,
and provide a means of reducing such losses to meet
the environmental objectives of receiving waters. The
Directive requires each Member State to undertake an
initial assessment of impacts (brought about by
human activities) on the water environment by the
end of 2004 (Article 5, and Annex II, Section 1&2).
This process will identify those waterbodies at risk of
failing to meet their environmental objectives, set by
the Directive. The risk assessments need to be
structured so that the level of detail needed for the
assessment is proportionate to the difficulty in judging
whether or not a water body is at risk (Environment
Agency, 2002; IMPRESS, 2002). Flow simulation
tools such as TopManage combined with existing
indexing approaches such as the P Index can aid risk
assessment approaches by evaluating the relative risk
of nutrient export as a consequence of different land
management options for the quality of receiving
waters. Selections of scenarios, using field data to
calibrate the output, are described below.
The TopManage model itself is split into a number
of sequential steps:
(a) Generation of a high resolution DEM using an
accurate GPS (Leica 500 series, dual frequency
real time system) and mobile vehicle together
with detailed surveying of complex features.
(b) Creation of two high resolution maps (dependent
on local runoff patterns). The first uses a grid size
of 110 m resolution: this scale has been shown to
give a good representation of field micro-
topography. The second uses a resolution of
30 cm to 1 m to represent complex features such
as ditches, local embankments, roads and tracks
where hydraulic controls of flow are needed.
(c) Addition of land management features such as
tramlines or land drains to the model. A smart
pixel approach, in which the elevation of the flow
controls of the cells is moved either up or down, is
used to evaluate the effect of these features on
flow. The pixel is not intended to be hydraulically
accurate but is used to force flow accumulation in
the direction caused by the feature, for example,
by a tramline. Similarly, the density of features
452 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
such as tramlines, are not simulated in detail but
the net effect is used. For example, to simulate the
impact of tramlines on a 2 m DEM, one line of
pixels every 20 m is lowered to force flow to
accumulate along the feature.
(d) Runoff flow paths are simulated in scenario mode
by manipulating land management features to
force flow to change direction or to create
ponding structures.
The results of the above four-step procedure give a
spatially distributed assessment of the risk of surface
and subsurface runoff which if combined with
information on nutrient applications on a field by
field basis, provides an optimised nutrient risk
assessment that may be used to minimise the risk of
the current nutrient applications reaching receiving
waters.
4. Results
4.1. Scenario 1: a sloping arable field
An assessment of pollution risk was undertaken for
a catchment receiving sewage sludge that forms part
of the SEAL project (Heathwaite et al., 2003c). A
single field in this catchment was mapped at 2 m
resolution. The soil, which had significant silt and clay
components, showed evidence of capping and rivulet
initiation following rainfall events. There was evi-
dence of surface runoff channelisation along tram-
lines, which followed the steepest gradient until they
reached the floodplain, where the tramlines ran along
the floodplain parallel to the river. In most locations
along the floodplain evidence of ponding and
sedimentation was clear. However, at two or possibly
more points, erosive flow was reaching the channel.
Another key factor in visual assessment was that the
farm track down the centre of the field along the
direction of flow, was incised and compacted and
consequently accumulating large amounts of overland
flow and delivering the flow directly to the floodplain.
The field does not have any ditches and flow enters a
natural river channel (on average 23 m wide). At this
field site, there is little opportunity to practically
manage the delivery of diffuse nutrients to the river
other than by targeting overland flow during vulner-
able time periods. In this example, the whole field acts
as a CSA in the winter period when there is little or no
crop cover. The field clearly has a high risk of P loss
during medium to large storms. Furthermore, the fate
of sediment re-deposited on the floodplain is proble-
matic. Interviews with the farmer and the sewage
sludge suppliers confirmed that the small floodplain
was prone to frequent flooding. Even though the
details of floodplain nutrient exchanges and losses are
not known, this zone represents a CSA for P and
sediment.
Using the TopManage approach, a 2-m DEM was
generated with a Leica 500 series GPS. The GPS was
mounted on an All Terrain Vehicle that enabled wide
areas to be mapped quickly. A model of flow risk was
derived by assuming that all the overland flow
followed the gradients defined by the surface DEM
(Fig. 1a) to reflect the natural state of the catchment
without cultivation. However, the field characteris-
ation has shown that the track resulting from manage-
ment practices in the field modified the flow paths, so
this feature was added to the map. Linear features such
as the track can be added to the DEM using a GIS
package such as Arcview but it is necessary to decide
what effect is to be captured by the feature. In this
example, the track was allowed to intercept and
redirect flow along its path but was not allowed to
overspill. A vector representing the location of the
track was added to the DEM and all pixels lying along
the track were selected and lowered by 1 m. By
lowering the cell by 1 m we are clearly stating that the
purpose of the feature is to intersect and re-direct flow
and these cells are classed as smart pixels because they
do not contain their actual elevation but an elevation
that forces a flow path.
A series of topographic indices such as slope, aspect,
curvatures and wetness (see Quinn et al., 1995) can be
determined from the DEM shown in Fig. 1a. In this
example, the upslope accumulation area was calculated
using the multiple-flow direction of Quinn et al. (1991).
The map derived traces the flow accumulation pattern
as it responds to local curvature effects and is thought to
be superior to the single flow direction algorithm
commonly available in GIS packages (Costa-Cabral
and Burgess, 1994; Quinn et al., 1995; Tarboton, 1997).
The flow accumulation map for the field is shown in
Fig. 1b, which highlights the flow concentration
generated by the track and two natural but subtle
topographic hollows in the field. The map shows
 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
Fig. 1. (a) Two metre digital elevation model of the field and (b) natural upslope flow accumulation map generated from the DEM shown in (a).
the upslope area in m2. To estimate flow volume
passing through any point on the DEM requires
knowledge of the effective rainfall for a storm event
(bearing in mind variable infiltration and flow time
delay effects). The effect of the floodplain is largely
indeterminate, as the DEM shows that there are 2 or 3
flow connection points but they are not in the correct
place because the features on the nearly flat floodplain
were not faithfully depicted on the 2 m DEM.
The next step was to add in the effects of the
tramlines on flow. A tramline spacing of 20 m was
chosen to define a line of smart pixels where the DEM
would be lowered by 1 m using the reasoning given
earlier. The resulting DEM is shown in Fig. 2a. The
20 m spacing adequately captured the flow channel-
ling effect without placing the tramlines so close that
they disrupted the underlying topography of the field.
It is assumed that the tramlines do not overspill and
tramlines in the floodplain are not represented. The
application of the flow path tool to the DEM shown in
Fig. 2a is shown in Fig. 2b. The result illustrates the
importance of tramlines in channelling flow directly
downhill so that it is efficiently delivered to the
floodplain at all locations to the extent that some of
the effects of the underlying topography on flow seen
in Fig. 1 are overridden.
It may be possible to introduce source mitigation to
reduce the magnitude of delivery of diffuse pollutants
453
in the flow paths predicted by the model. This could
be achieved by more effective use of the floodplain
CSA by avoiding sewage sludge application to this
zone or taking it out of cultivation completely and
leaving it as a buffer zone with an appropriate land use
(e.g. woodland, energy crops). Analysis of the DEM
shows that the floodplain occupies 18% of the total
field area. However, persuasion alone is unlikely to
bring about such a land use change unless it is funded
within agri-environmental schemes.
Alternatively, flow path mitigation could be
attempted using contour ploughing, which is often
advocated as an environmentally sensitive practice
(e.g. MAFF, 1998). This scenario is simulated by
adding tramlines to the original DEM using 10 m
spacing as earlier, but this time following the contours
of the field. Fig. 3a shows the location of the flow-
sensitive tramlines and Fig. 3b the impact of these
tramlines on upslope flow accumulation. The result-
ing features shown in Fig. 3b raise some interesting
points regarding runoff from the field. The tramlines
themselves appear to redirect flow into the topo-
graphic hollows; if they overtop they have the
potential to erode along the length of the topographic
hollow. From the simulation, it appears that overland
flow and erosion risk may not be greatly reduced as a
result of contour ploughing. From a practical
perspective many farmers also appear unwilling to
454 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461

Fig. 2. (a) DEM of the study field highlighting the existing tramline vectors to show where the smart pixels will be lowered in elevation to
generate; (b) upslope flow accumulation map (A) generated from figure (a).

cultivate in this style, and there are safety factors to be
considered when driving across steeper slopes.
Other flow mitigation strategies might include
direct interception of flow. Here we investigated the
use of small ponds to store overland flow to see if
there was sufficient capacity to store ca. 1520 mm
effective overland flow at the edge of the floodplain.
The proposed ponds occupy 510% of the total field
area and would remain empty for most of the year to
allow short-term storage of overland flow following
storm events. The addition on the DEM of a bund to
capture flow was undertaken by defining a suitable
location for the pond at the back of the floodplain and
then altering the DEM values upwards to create a
bund; the height and the length of the bund define the
likely storage capacity of the pond. We simulated a
2 m bund and a second terrain analysis tool was used
to fill the pond with flow by producing a map of the
depth of water behind the bund and the area covered
by water when full. The flow modelling tool output for
this scenario is shown in Fig. 4. Arcview was used to
compute the capacity of the pond(s). When full,

Fig. 3. (a) Digital elevation model showing the proposed flow-sensitive contour tramline vectors, and (b) upslope flow accumulation map
generated from the map shown in (a).
 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
Fig. 4. Depth of the ponds generated using a 2 m high barrier
positioned at the back of the floodplain.
the surface area of the ponds would occupy ca. 10% of
the field. If all the overland flow was stored in the field
ca. 75,000 m2 upslope area would need to be stored
based on the upslope area map shown in Fig. 1b.
Assuming there was 20 mm of overland flow during
an event this would give 75,000!0.02Z1500 m3 of
flow to be stored. Using Arcview, the average depth of
the ponds is given as 0.75 m and the area ca. 7300 m2
(i.e. approximately 10% of the total field), giving a
maximum storage capacity of ca. 5475 m 3. In
principle, the flow storage features can easily retain
20 mm of flow and it is possible to revisit the pond
design capacity. The most important conclusion here
is that the area of land needed to create a temporary
pond with the capacity to store a large storm event is
relatively small. Consequently, features such as small
storage areas may be used to trap nutrient rich
sediments in specified locations so that sediment
could be recycled back onto the field. Clearly on a
catchment-wide basis and under the holistic frame-
work proposed under the Water Framework Directive,
such measures have an economic cost that needs to be
balanced against the cost of, for example,
chemical removal of P at sewage treatment works
455
(see Smith et al., this volume). However, the whereas
the latter tackles only the consequences of nutrient
export from catchments, the modelling tool we
propose to maximise nutrient retention on land,
tackles the problem at source and is, in the long-
term, a more sustainable option.
4.2. Scenario 2: a drained arable field
Fig. 5a shows a 5 m DEM constructed for a further
set of fields studied under the SEAL project. These
fields slope to a common set of small ditches that
drain the area; field drains are installed in some of the
fields. Assuming that any overland flow is harvested
by mole drains, detailed surface mapping was
unnecessary and a 5 m DEM was sufficient. The
natural flow accumulation map shown in Fig. 5b
indicates the accumulation of flow into hollows and
the potential for the generation of saturated areas prior
to drainage. This is the pre-land management (in this
case pre-drainage) situation. A map of the field drains
in the upper field enabled the generation of the drain
layout map shown in Fig. 5c. The manipulation of
smart pixels shown in Fig. 5d assumed that the drains
intercept all upslope flow and redirect this flow along
the drains towards the ditch. The DEM pixels that lay
along the drainage network were lowered by 5 m to
guarantee that all flow was intercepted. Consequently,
the original flow convergence zones shown in Fig. 5b
are deprived of upslope flow and disappear in Fig. 5d.
Additionally, zones of high flow concentration are
shown at the top edge of the field in Fig. 5d. The
overall impact of field drainage is that a CSA is, in
effect, generated for the whole field, whereby nutrient
source areas are highly connected with receiving
waters and the field is of high risk for diffuse
pollution. A separate paper (Heathwaite et al.,
2003c) describes the consequences of sewage sludge
application to the land surface of drained fields on the
concentration of nutrients in drainage ditches.
For scenario 2, there is little opportunity to
ameliorate flow other than through removal or
blocking of land drains, which is unrealistic. Source
control is likely to be the most appropriate mitigation
strategy in fields with high hydrological connec-
tivityeither natural or artificial, as in this example.
This might be achieved by reducing the amount,
timing and/or type of fertiliser applied to the land
456 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461

Fig. 5. (a) Five metre digital elevation model (DEM) of the drained field at the SEAL field site (www.shef.ac.uk/seal) used for Scenario 2 with
water channels and physical features such as tracks superimposed, (b) natural upslope flow accumulation assuming that no land drains are
present, (c) 5 m digital elevation model showing the locations of the field drains in the upper field, (d) upslope flow accumulation map generated
from the DEM shown in figure (a).

surface but will clearly also depend on the soil
nutrient store. If nutrient export remains high it may
be possible to use the ditch network itself to attenuate
nutrient flux. This possibility is explored in Scenario 3
using a worked example from the Newcastle Univer-
sity Research Farm.
4.3. Scenario 3: ditch management for runoff
from a farm
Scenarios 1 and 2 address CSA management at the
field scale and demonstrate circumstances under which
flow path mitigation may (scenario 1) or may not
 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461 457

(scenario 2), be possible. For scenario 3 we argue that
an integrated whole farm approach gives greater
flexibility for the mitigation of diffuse agricultural
pollution. This work was conducted at the University
of Newcastle Nafferton research farm, which operates
as a typical profit making farm system. The primary
ditch network, which drains a catchment of ca.
0.5 km2, is shown in Fig. 6a; the network was
investigated to see if it had the capacity for nutrient
flux attenuation using chemical manipulation. Runoff
enters the ditch network as overland flow from field and
farm tracks, from drains and from subsurface flow. A
50 cm DEM ditch trial zone forming part of the farm
was constructed to indicate where a series of barriers

Fig. 6. Proposed locations of a series of small pond features generated by the introduction of barrier to flow in the drainage ditch as they would
appear during a storm event. The area and volumes of the ponds can be calculated directly using ArcView; the simulation was conducted using a
50 cm DEM of the ditch.
458 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
might be installed to slow flow and create temporary
storage zones to induce sedimentation and trap
sediment-associated contaminants such as P. The
objective was to introduce iron ochre filters in the
temporary storage ditch to test their ability to fix P; this
work forms part of a separate EPSRC research project.
Fig. 6b shows the results of a simulation using the
TopManage GIS toolkit to predict the impact of
altering the runoff regime in the farm ditches to enable
temporary storage of runoff in the ditch system. The
objective of this work was to evaluate whether
blocking the ditch would back-up flow and flood
adjacent fields or reduce the potential of existing field
drains to concentrate flow into the drainage ditch. For
this scenario, a highly accurate DEM was needed and
the survey was conducted with a GPS point every
50 cm; this information was used to create the 50 cm
DEM shown in Fig. 6b. The DEM was used to select
locations for the ditch flow barriers and to simulate the
consequent ponding. The results of the simulation
suggest that the barriers will not cause ditch overspill
and that their position can be optimised to minimise the
impact on the field drains. The analysis was carried out
using the DEM Profile Extractor (Tchoukanski, 2002)
available as part of the Arcview toolkit. The profile
extractor tool supplies a cross-section visualisation
that generates information on the area and volume of
the features created. In future applications the flow
simulation toolkit it will be used to design within-field
runoff control structures such as those described in
scenario 1 and will be included to give an integrated
runoff management plan for farms such as the one
described in Scenario C.
5. Discussion
The ultimate aim of the TopManage toolkit is to
incorporate the approach in farm management
decision making so that diffuse pollution may be
minimised while maintaining the farm income. The
scenarios reported above illustrate the potential for the
approach but it is not suggested that a high resolution
DEM is needed for every field in a catchment or on a
farm. The sort of flow path modelling described in the
scenarios above has value in demonstrating the
principle for flow path mitigation to ameliorate diffuse
pollution, often using common-sense approaches such
as buffer strips, hedgerow trapping, and natural or
artificial wetlands. Flow path modelling at the field
scale gives greater insight into how these proposed
features can be optimised by within the landscape to
maximise pollution reduction but minimise impact on
farm profit.
Clearly, the next step is to link such approaches
with diffuse nutrient models such as the Phosphorus
Indicators Tool (Heathwaite et al., 2003a), so that the
implications for nutrient attenuation, rather than
simply flow attenuation as demonstrated in this
paper, can be evaluated. For nutrients at least, it will
be important to look at both phosphorus and nitrogen
transport processes because flow path mitigation for
one element may have a negative impact on the other
(Heathwaite and Sharpley, 1999).
A further issue will be scaling the flow path
approach so that it can operate at the farm system or
catchment scale rather than the field level described in
this paper. Quinn et al. (1999); Brazier et al. (2001)
have developed MIR (Minimum Information Require-
ment) approaches to simulate catchment scale effects.
However, at the catchment scale the detailed impacts
of hydrological flow path adjustment cannot be
represented easily. The inherent uncertainty of
modelling at the catchment scale is well known
(Beven, 1989; Freer et al., 1996). The TopManage
toolkit is perhaps best seen as another scale-appro-
priate model that is valuable in understanding runoff
processes at the hillslope or field scale, but it is
essentially tied to that scale, and uncertainty will be
introduced in any attempt to scale-up the flow path
mitigation approaches described in this paper. Essen-
tially, hillslope modelling tools and catchment
modelling tools should be seen as complementary
approaches that operate best (and with least uncer-
tainty) at the scales at which they are developed.
Quinn (2004) gives an example of scale appropriate
modelling for nitrate pollution. Simple catchment
models may identify regions within the landscape that
may give rise to diffuse pollutants (for example a
certain land use, topographical regime and soil type).
This is essentially the basis of the phosphorus
indicators tool (PIT) (Heathwaite et al., 2003a)
which operates at a 1 km2 scale and is used to
highlight or screen out areas of a catchment that have
a higher risk of P delivery from land to water.
The flow path mitigation strategies described in this
 A.L. Heathwaite et al. / Journal of Hydrology 304 (2005) 446461
paper can then be targeted at the field scale within
those zones identified at the screening stage of being
at risk. There is no single model to do this analysis; a
series of complimentary models and toolkits present a
more viable approach.
6. Conclusion
There are a number of ways to tackle diffuse
nutrient pollution from agricultural land. The first
and best established method is source control
through the management of nutrient applications
to land. However, the high environmental standards
for agricultural production likely under CAP
reform, and the expectations of new environmental
objectives for waterbodies under the WFD, force us
to look more closely at the transport controls and
the remediation of polluted runoff from farms as a
means of further reducing the environmental risk.
Utilisation of principles such as the CSA concept
allows the key areas of risk to be explored further.
In the UK, whole fields have often been regarded
to be of high risk and blanket control measures
have been suggested (e.g. MAFF, 1998). The
TopManage toolkit uses GPS, terrain analysis and
GIS tools to illustrate how flow path manipulation
might reduce the export of contaminants from
diffuse source areas. This approach may help
identify where land management measures that
are often cheap and simple to introduce, may
operate most effectively.
In conclusion, manipulation of the hydrological
flow paths delivering diffuse source contaminants
from land to water may aid land use policy. Currently,
the available analytical tools are quite crude but can
promote a number of common-sense land use
measures that reduce polluting flows. The importance
of managing agricultural nutrients in a manner that
both sustains agricultural profitability and protects the
quality of our environment is clear. The general
principle of land management policy should be one of
the minimisation of nutrient loss from land to water;
this is essentially the rationale behind both Top-
Manage and nutrient risk evaluation approaches such
as PIT. Clearly, it is virtually impossible to produce
food and other agricultural products economically
without some nutrient loss to ground and surface
459
waters and the atmosphere. However, manipulation of
the economics of agricultural production in Europe
and the US through intervention and subsidies has
tended to aggravate the environmental impact. It
remains to be seen whether CAP reform and
legislation such as the Water Framework Directive
simply change the basis for intervention or lead to
some lasting changes to reduce diffuse pollution
impacts on receiving waters.
Acknowledgements
The research reported in this paper was funded by
an EPSRC research grant GR/N26074/01: The SEAL
Project: Strategic Management of Non-point Source
Pollution from Sewage Sludge. The authors would
like to thank Ianko Tchoukanski for the use of his
DEM Profile Extractor.
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