UK experiences in developing a catchment scale, risk based, approach to mitigating all routes for pesticide loss to water

摘要

Since 2001, the UK Voluntary Initiative (VI) has sought to reduce the environmental impact of pesticide use on both water quality and biodiversity. A key part of the VI programme was the four year 'Pilot Water Catchment Study', which started in 2002 and was co-funded by the Crop Protection Association and UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR). The project aimed to develop a practical set of approaches and tools to demonstrably and sustainably reduce pesticide levels in water at catchment scale. The project tested methods in a number of locations across the UK, and has shown how - through collaborative effort - pesticide levels in water can be reduced using an improved understanding of risks including weather and soil effects. However this requires a rigorous risk based approach with ongoing support from all advisors and farmers across the catchment using mitigation tools that address both point source and diffuse routes of pollution. This paper summarises the results and conclusions so far from this project.