User’s Manual for Prediction of Phosphorus Concentration
In Nova Scotia Lakes: A Tool for Decision Making
Version 1.0
SUMMARY
Increasing demands on our freshwater resources to provide clean water for industrial, domestic, agricultural and recreational purposes, together with increasing development of watersheds, has raised concerns about the kind and amount of development that can be tolerated in watersheds containing these resources. Of major concern are watershed activities that result in increased inputs of phosphorus to lakes, the nutrient most important in controlling lake productivity and, when present in high concentrations, the major cause of lake eutrophication. As a result, considerable effort has been extended by various agencies to develop methods that can be used to determine the extent to which a watershed can be altered before the aquatic ecosystems it contains begin to exhibit impaired water quality.
This manual documents a simple modeling procedure that has been widely used to predict the amount of phosphorus present in the water column of a lake based on its morphological, hydrological and drainage basin characteristics. This model has proven to be a useful tool in decision making and assessments of the effect of various alterations within a watershed with respect to how they may influence lake phosphorus concentrations. The intended users of the manual include federal and provincial resource management agencies, provincial regulatory officers, municipal planners, consulting agencies and non-governmental organizations and individuals.