Boënne, Wesley

Broekx, Steven

Desmet, Nele

Joris, Ingeborg

Koopmans, Kim

Quaglia, Gisela

Seuntjens, Piet

Vandaele, Karel

English

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 20, EGU2018-7697-1, 2018EGU General Assembly 2018© Author(s) 2018. CC Attribution 4.0 license.Spatial and temporal analysis of priority zones to mitigate pesticidepollution in a small catchmentGisela Quaglia (1,2), Ingeborg Joris (1), Steven Broekx (1), Nele Desmet (1), Wesley Boënne (1), Kim Koopmans(3), Karel Vandaele (4), Piet Seuntjens (1,2,5)(1) VITO, Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Environmental Modeling, Belgium (gisela.quaglia@vito.be), (2)Department of Soil Management, Ghent University, Belgium, (3) PCFruit npo, Belgium, (4) Watering Sint-Truiden, Belgium,(5) University of Antwerp, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, BelgiumThe use of pesticides during agricultural production can negatively influence water quality and be a threat toaquatic ecosystems. Pesticides can enter the environment through different pathways such as runoff, erosion, driftor point losses and be diffused in the environment. Hence, there is an increased interest in the implementationof targeted mitigation measures in agriculture to reduce the environmental impact of pesticides and to reach thedesired surface water quality at a certain location.Identifying priority areas to implement mitigation measures is an important step in the development of amanagement strategy to reduce pesticide loads in surface water at catchment level. The study of the spatialand temporal variation of the risk zones for pesticide pollution is relevant when long-term measures have to beimplemented within a catchment. Some agricultural areas undergo yearly variations in parcel size, shape andcrop rotation that could represent a change in the associated risk and the contribution of pesticide towards thesurface water. A thorough understanding of the spatial and temporal variations in parcel size, parcel shape andcrop rotation in the study area is needed to suggest specific measures at the field scale to reduce pesticide impacts.The long-term analysis in the identification of risk zones also requires the consideration of implementation of(mitigation) measures and field observations that can modify the calculated risk.Our methodology includes very detailed landscape data like topography, crop cover, use of pesticide, ero-sion risk and connectivity among other relevant factors to derive theoretical risk. Parcel scale is considered inthis study for a catchment in SE Flanders (Belgium). Best practices and management decisions for reducingpesticide pollution are developed primarily to be implemented by individual farmers within field limits expectingan overall improvement at larger scale. Therefore the local practices and the microscale within a catchment havebeen included in this methodology.We will demonstrate for a case study how microscale variations can be included in a methodology to iden-tify priority zones to target mitigations measures in a small catchment and how field validation of the risk zonescan be performed.

Spatial and temporal analysis of priority zones to mitigate pesticide pollution in a small catchment

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8619261/file/8619269.pdf

Spatial and temporal analysis of priority zones to mitigate pesticide pollution in a small catchment

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