NutrientNet is an online nutrient trading system - a type of marketplace for environmental credits similar to the carbon credit markets. It provides an easy-to-use tool for calculating nutrient credits, and acts as a type of exchange for buyers and sellers to trade credits.
Why would people be interested in trading nutrient credits? Believe it or not, nutrient pollution (both nitrogen and phosphorus) is a major source of water pollution throughout the world. Many different sources produce nutrients, including agriculture (think animal manure, fertilizer and sediment), wastewater treatment plants (think human waste), urban run-off (think lawns and pet waste) and industrial facilities. Many of these sources are regulated under the Clean Water Act. The EPA (and the states) provides permits that allow sources to pollute, and if they exceed those limits they may face fines. Nutrient trading allows one source that might be exceeding its limit to trade with another source that is below its limit. The net result is the same in terms of water quality, but can provide a much cheaper alternative to expensive technology upgrades.
Nutrient trading programs can be complex, though, and NutrientNet is an attempt to reduce that complexity through a web-based trading platform.
To learn more about NutrientNet, visit any of the NutrientNet websites below:
Kalamazoo Watershed NutrientNet (Michigan)
Conestoga Watershed NutrientNet (Pennsylvania)
Main Project Site (not recently updated)
NutrientNet utilizes a custom-built Model-View-Controller framework (PHP5), supported by several PEAR modules, JQuery and a custom-built Object-Relational mapper. It uses a custom build script, Trac for project management and MySQL5 for the back-end database system. Code is version controlled using Subversion.
In the future, we hope to make some of the source code freely available and eventually create a NutrientNet package that can be easily customized for different watersheds and trading programs.
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