MitAgatorTM: a Farm Scale Tool to Estimate and Mitigate the Loss of Contaminants from Land to Water

Abstract. Land users and managers require decision support tools (DST) that enable them to estimate losses of contaminants to freshwater. The MitAgatorTM is a DST that estimates losses of nitrogen, phosphorous, sediment and fecal indicator bacteria (E. coli) and the cost-effectiveness of different strategies to mitigate losses so that a water quality target can be met at least cost. Some of the algorithms present within the DST Overseer (a standard DST used in New Zealand for N and P management) have been modified and appended to have spatial capacity for use in the beta version of the MitAgatorTM. Outputs from MitAgatorTM showed good (P