), P.O. Box 173, N-0411 Oslo

Biographical sketches of authors
Johannes Deelstra is an agro-hydrologist. Before working in Norway he obtained extensive experience with
agriculture and water related issues in Kenya and Egypt. At present his main activities are related to
agriculture and environment. He has been working with the Agricultural Environmental Monitoring
Programme in Norway (JOVA) since 1992 and is since 1993 also involved with agriculture and environmental
issues in the Baltic countries.

Stine Marie Vandsemb is an environmental scientist with experience in water and soil pollution. Since 2000
she has been working with the Agricultural Environmental Monitoring Programme in Norway (JOVA). In
addition the last three years she has been working as a project manager in an EU project (MANTRA-East)
dealing with management issues of transboundary waters and the implementation of the EU Water Framework
directive.

Marianne Bechmann is an environmental scientist. Since 1989 her main field of work has been nutrient
dynamics and monitoring nutrient losses at catchment scale, e.g. as co-ordinator of the nutrient part of
the Agricultural Environmental Monitoring Program in Norway. Now she is a Ph. D student working on risk
assessment of phosphorus losses. Bechmann have several international publications in this field

Hans Olav Eggestad is an environmental scientist. His main tasks are related to the Agricultural
Environmental Monitoring Programme in Norway (JOVA) in which he is responsible for the development of
software and database management. In addition, he is working with statistical modelling in relation to data
reporting both at national and international level.

Nils Vagstad has long experience within agro-hydrology, agronomy, environmental issues in agriculture, land
resources and watershed management. He has an extended network within agriculture/environment including
monitoring in the Baltic Sea Region and in Northern Europe and is participating in various working groups
and task forces under e.g. HELCOM, Baltic 21, OSPAR.

Abstract
The Agricultural Environmental Monitoring Programme (JOVA) in Norway monitors and assesses nutrient
losses and erosion from 10 small agricultural catchments under different agricultural systems and
climatological, topographical and geo-hydrological conditions. The core of the monitoring activities consists
of discharge measurement and water sampling, providing data for nutrient load calculation. Routines have
been developed for automatic downloading of recorded data on a daily basis, control of runoff data and water
analysis results in addition to load calculations. Relevant information regarding farming practices is collected
yearly at the level of the individual farmer field and entered into a database while reporting routines
concerning farming practices have been developed. The monitoring program is integrated into existing
national networks and provides on a yearly basis relevant data to comply with both national and international
obligations. The JOVA-programme includes components dealing with modelling nutrient loads and erosion
and when necessary additional measurements are carried out to support these activities. To enhance the
sustainability of the monitoring programme, the design and implementation is such that it is suitable and
attractive for research and educational purposes while the applied measuring methods and procedures are
sufficiently advanced to comply with international scientific standards. INTRODUCTION
Jordforsk is in charge of the Agricultural Environmental Monitoring Programme (JOVA) in Norway. One of
the major objectives of the programme is to document the effect of different agricultural production systems
and site specific characteristics on erosion and nutrient losses to surface waters and to advice local and
central policymakers about agricultural production systems and their environmental effects. JOVA is a joint
effort between the Norwegian Centre for Soil and Environmental Research (Jordforsk), the Norwegian Crop
Research Institute (Planteforsk), Rogaland Research, the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and
the County Department of Environmental and Agricultural Affairs. The programme is funded by the
Norwegian Agricultural Authority. The JOVA-programme also includes a component dealing with monitoring
of pesticides. Many of the data collection routines presented in this paper are applicable to that component,
however detailed results are not presented here. In relation to the JOVA-programme also a monitoring of 8
fresh water lakes has been carried out with the objective to illustrate the water quality effects of agricultural
pollution. This programme and its results are not presented here.

JOVA - THE AGRICULTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PROGRAMME IN NORWAY
The programme has been in operation since 1992 in 10 agricultural catchments varying in size from 1- 20 km
2
.
The catchments represent different geo-hydrological conditions, agricultural practices and climatological
conditions (Table 1). Three of the catchments are dominated by cereal production, four by grass
production/livestock husbandry while two are characterised by a combination of cereal/grass production (with
cereal as the dominating crop). One catchment has a combination of potatoes, vegetables and cereals. Field
scale studies (Bye and Vandsemb) are related to 2 monitoring catchments but the results are not presented here.




Figure 1. Geographical location of
monitoring stations (above), the Mørdre
catchment outlet (right, top) and Naurstad
during winter (right, bottom).


Within the JOVA - programme, information concerning agricultural practices is collected yearly for
individual farm fields in the catchments and any changes in practices are thereby recorded. In addition,
nutrient and soil loss is measured. Measuring those losses at catchment scale is not necessarily a
straightforward task. The choice of methodology regarding the accuracy and precision of the collected data
has to be a compromise between costs (e.g. equipment and operation & maintenance costs) and end-users
demand (e.g. researchers, managers, public authorities). There is no one specific method which can be
recommended, except that each case has to be considered separately on the basis of the site specific conditions
like catchment size, topography, channel characteristics, climatological conditions and the geo-hydrological
settings. Correct measurements of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) losses (loads in surface waters at
2 catchment scale) require reliable and precise data on concentrations as well as on water discharge. The
reliability of the data may be affected by both field procedures as well as analytical procedures.

Table 1. Main catchment characteristics
Nedbørfelt Total
area
(ha)
Farm
land
(%)
Temp
(
°C)
Precip.
(mm)
Soil type
Major crop
Skuterud 449 61 5.5
785
Silty
loam Cereals
Mørdre 680
65
4.3
665
Silt
and
clay
Cereals
Kolstad 308
68
4.2
585
Humic
loam Cereals
Hotran
1940
58
5.3
892
Silty loam/clay
Cereals, grass
Naurstad 146 35 4.5
1020
Bog/fine
sand
Grass
Skas-Heigre 2930
85
7.7 1180 Clay/sand/gravel Grass,
cereals
Volbu 168
41
1.6
575
Silty
sand Grass
Vasshaglona
65
62
6.9
1230
Sand
Vegetables, potatoes, cereals
Time 1140
85
7.2
1189
Silty
sand Grass
Grimestad
177
45
7.3
1080
Silty sand
Cereals, grass


DISCHARGE MEASUREMENT
Different methods can be used to obtain information about stream discharge but they are often based on the
combination of direct measurement of the water level and a known head-discharge relation for the
measurement location (Deelstra, J. et al, 1998). When natural profiles are used for discharge measurement, a
head-discharge function has to be established. A problem often encountered is the change in flow conditions
over time due to vegetative growth. This is especially true for small streams with a high relative influence of
vegetative growth and can lead to large uncertainties in the head-discharge relation. When initiating a long
term monitoring programme, fixed measuring devices are preferred with a known head-discharge relation and
high accuracy in discharge measurement. In the JOVA - programme, both the V-notch and the Crump weir are
used. The V- notch (Figure 1) is a widely used measurement structure in the Nordic countries (Granholm,
1989). When soil erosion is present, sedimentation can cause serious problems for the proper functioning of
the V-notch. The Crump-weir (Figure 2) is a short crested weir (Bos, 1978) and is extensively used in the
JOVA - programme. It can operate under partly submerged flow conditions while in addition it has the ability
to transport sediments over the crest.


Figure 1. V-notch(after Bos, 1978)

The head - discharge relation, developed in the
laboratory is;

Q C
8
15 tg
2 g h
e
2.5
=
×
×
×
× ×

where

C
e
- discharge coefficient
- angle of V-notch
g - acceleration of gravity
h - water level
3
The head - discharge relation is
Q B C C 23 23 g h
c
d
v
0.5
1
1.5
= × × × × ×





×

where

C
d
- discharge coefficient
C
v
- approach velocitiy coefficient
B
c
- width of structure

g
- acceleration of gravity
h
1
-
water
level


Figure 2. Crump weir(after Bos, 1978)

Within the JOVA - programme, discharge measurements are