The aim of the ‘National ‘Action Plan for Risk Reduction and Sustainable Use of Plant-Protection Products’ (AP PPP) is to significantly reduce the environmental risks associated with PPPs. The main routes of entry of PPPs from agriculture into surface waters are erosion, surface runoff, leaching, tile-drainage runoff and farmyard runoff.
Plant-Protection Product Inputs from Tile Drainage – Conceptual Model and Reduction Measures
The ‘National Action Plan for Risk Reduction and Sustainable Use of Plant-Protection Products’ was adopted by the Swiss Federal Council on 6 Sept. 2017. Measure 6.2.1.3 calls for the ‘development of strategies for reducing PPP inputs into surface waters via tile drainage, the drainage of water from roads and paths, and via inlet shafts on plots’. To this end, a conceptual model was developed for PPP transport in tile drainage. With reference to Switzerland, the model is meant to highlight the relevant transport processes as well as the factors influencing them. The model must serve as a basis for assessing
the importance of tile drainage for PPP input into surface waters
measures for reducing PPP inputs into surface waters, and
the informative value of existing regulatory models.
Co-workers: Florian Kobierska, Volker Prasuhn, Roy Kasteel
Drained Areas and Potential Map for Drained Areas
Tile drainage can be a major source of plant-protection product inputs into surface waters. To date, information on the location and distribution of tile-drainage in Switzerland has been insufficient. In the current project, all available digital cantonal data on drained areas are processed in GIS and evaluated. Based on this, potentially drained areas are modelled by means of machine learning for the remaining areas. The aim is to produce a digital map of drained areas for the whole of Switzerland.
Co-workers: Ulrike Koch, Volker Prasuhn
PPP Risk Maps
Maps of the whole of Switzerland are being created which show the small catchment areas (approx. 22,000 catchment areas of around 2 km2 each) where an increased input of plant-protection products (PPPs) into the surface waters can be expected. The maps show the potential input risk for runoff/erosion, tile drainage, and point sources from farms (farmyard runoff) as well as a synthesis map. These national survey maps allow a rough estimate of the potential PPP input risk and the identification of potentially problematic catchment areas. They also provide GIS-based principles for other more-advanced tools enabling the evaluation of the potential ecotoxicological risk of PPPs at catchment-area level.
Co-workers: Ulrike Koch, Volker Prasuhn, Laura de Baan
