Spatial and temporal analysis of pesticides concentrations in surface water: Pesticides atlas

Abstract

Dutch water boards have a well-established program for monitoring pesticide contamination of surface waters. These monitoring data have been processed into a graphic format accessible online and designed to provide insight into pesticide presence in Dutch surface waters and trends over time: the Pesticides Atlas (http://www.pesticidesatlas.nl). With this tool one can easily get maps of where a pesticide is being measured and where it might possibly constitute an environmental problem over the years. Presently, results of the periods 1997/1998 until 2005/2006 are available at the level of individual active ingredients. At a national level, the percentage of pesticides concentrations that exceed the maximum tolerable risk has declined 30% to 38% over the years 2003/2004 compared with 1997/1998. This means that surface water quality in the Netherlands has improved with respect to pesticides, however there are still many locations at which the measured concentrations exceed the environmental quality standards. The results on linking land use to pesticides concentrations were shown to assist in optimization of monitoring programs. By developing the present Internet tool, many new opportunities for environmental risk assessment and risk management were identified, e.g. optimization of monitoring strategies and communication to policymakers.

Keywords:

• Pesticides
• monitoring
• surface waters
• geographic presentation
• internet tool

Acknowledgment

We thank Dennis Kalf (Waterdienst) and his colleagues for their assistance in the development of the Pesticides Atlas. We thank Roel Knoben and his colleagues (Royal Haskoning) for hosting and designing our Internet tool. We thank Ton van der Linden, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), for his comment on the manuscript and the three anonymous reviewers.

This paper was presented at the CEMEPE conference held on June 24–28, 2007 at the Skiathos Island, Greece.

Notes

^#active ingredients and relevant metabolites.