Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

This study was aimed to estimate the total application cost and utilization of Turf grass VFS application through the field experiment. The experimental plots were constructed in an upland field of Iksan city within the Saemangeum watershed. Turf grass was transplanted at the down-slope edge of the pollution source area in each of the treated plots. Three rainfall events were monitored during the experiment period, and the rainfall-runoff relationships and NPS pollution reduction effects of the VFS systems were assessed. As results, the reduction ratio of runoff volume ranged 14.1∼64.0 %, while the NPS pollution reduction ratio ranged 9.8∼73.9 % for SS, 24.0∼84.2 % for T-N, 31.6∼80.9 % for T-P respectively. The total cost of VFS application was estimated by considering purchase cost of Turf grass sods and construction and maintenance costs of VFS system as well as the loss caused by giving up crop cultivation for the area needed to construct the VFS. The total cost of the VFS was estimated to be approximately \3,379,000/ha/year for the first year of application, and this cost could be decreased to \1,899,000/ha/year from the second year as the construction cost of VFS could no longer need to be counted afterwards. Apart from the NPS pollution reduction effects, the possible utilization of VFS was examined by detaching Turf grass within 40 % of VFS area for sale during spring time when the VFS systems fully covered. The benefit of selling the detached Turf grass sods was estimated as \1,260,000/ha/year, and also found that the VFS area successfully recovered by the time of the summer period. This benefit could attract farmers to adopt the VFS technique to manage agricultural NPS pollution.