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Transcript of Adresse adresse New innovative tools to assess and reduce the potential for pesticide water...
Adresse
Adresse
adressewww.footways.eu
New innovative tools to assess and reduce the potential for pesticide water contamination across Europe
Igor Dubus [[email protected]]Chemicals in Water workshop, EEA
6-7 December 2010
www.footways.eu
Igor Dubus
• 15 years as a scientist working on the risk of contamination of water resources by pesticides
• >30 peer-reviewed papers in the field• Coordinator of the EU-funded Footprint project between
2006 and 2009• Created the start-up company Footways in 2009 to offer
operational tools and practical solutions to ALL stakeholders involved in pesticides and the environment
www.footways.eu
The need for operational tools for pesticide risk assessment and management (1/2)
• Risk assessors involved in pesticide registration know a LOT about the potential contamination of water resources by pesticides
Which compound are likely to cause problems? Under which conditions (soils, crops, application conditions)? Is the problem widespread? Are there any solutions? If yes, are they compatible with agricultural practices?
• Yet there are surveys reporting on a decrease of water quality with regard to pesticides
• So what is wrong here?
www.footways.eu
The need for operational tools for pesticide risk assessment and management (2/2)
• The problem is that those who can address the issue of the presence of pesticides in water do not have the knowledge / time / tools to identify issues and solutions
Those involved in the protection of water resources : MS ministries, water agencies, water companies, municipalities Those most concerned with pesticide losses from fields across Europe: farmers and farming organisations Those involved in developing relevant policy instruments: national and EU policy makers
www.footways.eu
Providing tools for pesticide risk assessment and management
• The EU project Footprint (2006-2009) developed a first methodology, but there were clear limitations:
Very coarse climatic zonation Supporting modelling data not completed Software tools not finalised when the project finished in June 2009 No funding to continue the work
• Footways has adapted the methodology and now provides access to a series of tools which are operational and adapted to all scales/stakeholders
Catchments CountiesRegions River basins Countries The EUFarmsFields
www.footways.eu
Methodological aspectsStep 1 – characterising the agro-pedo-climatic conditions in which pesticides are applied
www.footways.eu
Methodological aspectsStep 2 – simulate likely environmental transfers
using state-of-the-art research models
MACROdrainage, leaching
Environmental risk indicators
Pesticides
PRZMrunoff, erosion
www.footways.eu
Methodological aspectsStep 3 – calculate risk indicators
• Footprint indicatorsState-of-the-art
But very complex and difficult to understand for a non- expert!
• New PITSA indicatorsPesticide IndicaTor for a Sustainable Agriculture
Very simple to understand, operational and adapted to action plans on the ground
The proportion of days in which water leaving fields exceeds regulatory thresholds
www.footways.eu
There are numerous factors affecting pesticide fate
Products
Equipment
Crop
Climate
Land management
Landscape elements
Soil
Application
www.footways.eu
Picture taken at Copenhagen airport this morning
www.footways.eu
• You cannot expect policy-makers or farmers to be pesticide fate experts and use research tools!• The solution is to use web technologies and to adjust the complexity of the web interfaces to the skills of the users• What users are typically interested in:
"I just want to know if the application of Compound X is likely to cause problems in some countries (or in my catchment).
Oh. And if there is a problem, I just would like to know if and how it can be solved."
The need for turn-key solutions
www.footways.eu
The FOOTWAYS Pro platform
Model parameterisation
Model running
Results postprocessingwww.footways.pro
You specify the risks you want to assess
And you get the results back
All the modelling is done on a supercomputer based in Orléans in France
www.footways.eu
Log in page
www.footways.eu
The Management board
www.footways.eu
Different scales, different target users
EU, MS, regions and water basins
Catchments Fields and farms
Policy makers and water quality managers Extension services
www.footways.eu
Mapping tools for policy-makers at the large scale
From initial diagnostics …….. to action plans
The map above shows concentrations in surface water resulting from transfers of a reference pesticide through runoff and erosion. Footways tools allow users to assess the efficiency of alternative solutions to limit the transfer of pesticides to water resources (see maps on the right).
Change ofapplication date
Product substitution
10-m buffer zone
www.footways.eu
Management tools at the catchment scale
For the protection and sustainability of water resources
Footways tools are based on predictions of pesticide transfer through leaching, drainage, runoff, erosion and spray drift, at a daily resolution.
Contribution of individual fields to contamination at
the catchment outlet
Field losses for individual pesticides
Risk indicators for individual fields and the
catchment area
Change ofapplication date
Product substitution
10-m buffer zone
www.footways.eu
Now, what can you do at the scale of the EU ?
• You can predict the fate of pesticides in the environment
for any pesticide
applied on one of 42 crops
in any of 24 EU countries (except Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus not integrated at this stage)
• The Footways tools can be optimised for national applications
www.footways.eu
A few example maps
• The following maps show the risk of contamination of surface water by a specific pesticide through inputs by runoff and erosion
• Colours correspond to concentrations.
• Purple, blue and green are fine. The redder the colour the larger the risk for drinking water resources.
No data
< 0.001 µg/l
0.001-0.01 µg/l
0.01-0.1 µg/l
0.1-1 µg/l
1-10 µg/l
> 10 µg/lNo data
< 0.001 µg/l
0.001-0.01 µg/l
0.01-0.1 µg/l
0.1-1 µg/l
1-10 µg/l
> 10 µg/l
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Denmark
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Belgium
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Germany
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Lithuania
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Greece
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Europe 24
www.footways.eu
Identify problems and find solutions
Concentrations in surface water originating from surface runoff
and erosion
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Identify problems and find solutions
ca. 80 km
NUTS level 3
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Identify problems and find solutions
ca. 6 km
Village of Saint Firmin
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Finding the right solution
5-m buffer zone 10-m buffer zone 20-m buffer zone
No mitigation strategy
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Tools for different scales and usersA stepwise approach
• Identify problematic compounds and practices at the EU/national scale
• Assess things in more detail at the regional or catchment scale to identify problematic zones in the catchment and come up with mitigation measures
• Provide access to extension advisers and farmers so that they can feel involved and come up with solutions themselves
www.footways.eu
How can these new tools be used?
• Identify problematic pesticides, zones, crops and practices
• Prioritise pesticides
• Optimise surveillance programmes
• Use the system to see if solutions to contamination problems exist
• Come up with meaningful action plans
• Get farmers and farming organisations to use the tools so that they can modify their practices
• Monitor progress on a regular basis
www.footways.eu
Take-home messages
• Tools for tackling the issue of the presence of pesticides in water across Europe have been developed
• The methodology is partly based on research carried out in the Footprint EU project (2006-2009)
• The Footways tools are operational and can very effectively support
the implementation of existing pieces of legislation at the EU and MS levels
• Water Framework Directive• The Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (National Action
Plans)
the design of new policies in the field of water protection
www.footways.eu
Acknowledgements