Adequate knowledge on the movement of nutrients under various agricultural practices is essential for developing remedial measures to reduce nonpoint source pollution. Mathematical models, after extensive calibration and validation, are useful to derive such knowledge and to identify site-specific alternative agricultural management practices. A spatial-process model that uses GIS and ADAPT, a field scale daily time-step continuous water table management model, was calibrated and validated for flow and nitrate-N discharges from a 365 ha agricultural watershed in central Iowa, in the Midwestern United States. This watershed was monitored for nitrate-N losses from 1991 to 1997. Spatial patterns in crops, topography, fertilizer applications [...]