Cost assessment of averting groundwater pollution

摘要

Modern agriculture serves as a source for groundwater pollution caused by nitrate leaching carried downward by seepage of excess water. Farmers do not usually consider these environmental hazards in their decision-making unless forced to by market or administrative measures. We compare the possibilities open to individual farmers and to the state, assess consequent environmental hazards to groundwater, and suggest appropriate measures to control them. Estimation is based on an optimization model applied to the central area of Israel located above the coastal aquifer. [References: 15]