Case study: spatial decision support for the admission of new pesticides

Abstract

The use of pesticides forms an integral part of modern agriculture. It assures farmers high yields and good quality crops. Monitoring programmes have shown, however, that pesticides may also appear in ground and surface water, with implications for ecosystems and public health. As can be seen from Figure 8.1, the use of pesticides in the European Union is widespread, resulting in high average loads and unequal spatial distribution of these loads both between and within countries.

“In some cases, pesticides resemble some bad hunters: either they miss the target, or they hit a wrong one ”(Anon.).

The research presented in this chapter is supported by the Research program 1990–1994 of the European Commission, Directorate General for Science, Research and Development under contract number EV 5V-CT92–0217. The European Pesticide Hazard Information and Decision support System (EUPMDS) was developed in a consortium that includes the Institute of Environmental Studies and the Department of Regional Economics of the Free University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM, Bilthoven, The Netherlands), the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology (Schmallenberg, Germany) and the International Centre for Pesticide Safety (Milan, Italy). Basic data for this chapter were provided by the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection. The author is grateful to all project members for their support in writing this chapter. Special thanks go to Peter Lepper of the Fraunhofer Institute, and to Ton van der Linden and Reinier van den Berg of the RIVM, for their suggestions and for their thorough screening of all parts of the text that involve ecotoxicology. This chapter is based on Beinat and van den Berg (1996) and Janssen and Beinat (1995).