Selecting a pesticide leaching indicator for integration into a decision support system at farm scale.

The recent EU agricultural policy emphasises enhancing the sustainability of farming by promoting organic practices and the responsible management of chemical inputs such as pesticides. In this context, it is essential to provide farmers with reliable pesticide risk indicators that can be integrated into decision support systems, enabling them to identify optimal pest management strategies, minimise environmental impact, and monitor progress in improving farm-level sustainability. This paper outlines our approach to selecting the most appropriate pesticide risk indicator for assessing the potential leachability of pesticides into groundwater.

Spatial distributions and temporal trends (2009-2020) of chemical mixtures in streams and rivers across Lombardy region (Italy).

Chemical mixtures in the environment are of increasing concern in the scientific community and regulators. Indeed, evidence indicates that aquatic wildlife and humans can be simultaneously and successively exposed to multiple chemicals mainly originating from different anthropic sources by direct uptake from water and indirectly via eating aquatic organisms. This study analyses a large set of sampling data referring to the entire Lombardy region, the most industrialised and at the same time the most important agriculture area in Italy, investigating the presence and potential effects of chemical mixtures in surface water bodies.

MIMERA: An online tool for the sustainable pesticide use at field scale.

As echoed in the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy, the EU agricultural policy has clear objectives of improving the sustainability (environmental, economic and social) of farm productions. The environmental goals are supported by promotion of organic farming and the responsible management of inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides. In this framework, there is a need is to provide farmers with tools to evaluate the best options for reducing environmental impact and measure performances in improving the sustainability of their productions.

Mix-Tool: An Edge-of-Field Approach to Predict Pesticide Mixtures of Concern in Surface Water From Agricultural Crops.

Current regulation on the authorization of plant protection products (PPPs) in the European Union is limited to the evaluation of ecological risks for the single active substances they contain. However, plant protection treatments in agriculture often consist of PPPs already containing more than one active substance; moreover, each cropped field receives multiple applications per year, leading to complex pesticide mixtures in the environment. Different transport processes lead to a multitude of heterogeneous and potentially toxic substances that, for example, may reach water bodies and act simultaneously on natural freshwater ecosystems.

Use of large datasets of measured environmental concentrations for the ecological risk assessment of chemical mixtures in Italian streams: A case study.

A method to evaluate the ecological risk of chemical mixtures in water bodies is here presented. In the first phase, the approach considered routine chemical monitoring data (MEC: measured environmental concentrations) obtained from the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, which were georeferenced to a single coordinate system for each monitoring station. The overall mixture toxicity were then evaluated for three representative aquatic organisms (algae, Daphnia, fish) using the concentration addition model to combine exposure with ecotoxicological data (from different databases).

Personal protective equipment use by healthcare workers in intensive care unit during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: a secondary analysis of the PPE-SAFE survey.

Background: Italy was the first Western country to be heavily affected by COVID-19. Healthcare workers (HCWs) were exposed to a high risk of occupational infection, partially due to insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies. This study aimed to describe the practices, availability, training, confidence in PPE use and the adverse effects due to extended PPE use, as reported by HCWs in Italy.

Analysis of large-scale monitoring data to identify spatial and temporal trend of risk for terbuthylazine and desethyl-terbuthylazine in surface water bodies of Po plain (Italy).

In Italy, the National Environmental Protection Agency (ISPRA) publishes annual reports containing the results of monitoring programs for pesticides in surface and groundwater. These programs were established to accomplish the EU Directives addressing the quality of water resources (drinking water, groundwater and surface water) such as the Water Framework Directive or the Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides. These data can be extremely helpful for risk management actions as they can provide indications where to implement mitigation measures at the territorial scale.

A new methodology to identify surface water bodies at risk by using pesticide monitoring data: The glyphosate case study in Lombardy Region (Italy).

In the last decades, several monitoring programs were established as an effect of EU Directives addressing the quality of water resources (drinking water, groundwater and surface water). Plant Protection Products (PPPs) are an obvious target of monitoring activities, since they are directly released into the environment. One of the challenges in managing the risk of pesticides at the territorial scale is identifying the locations in water bodies needing implementation of risk mitigation measures.

Sustainable use of veterinary pharmaceuticals on the territory (Sust-PHarm): Linking available database of manure management and environmental fate models.

Analogously to the evolution of the EU legislation on pesticides, there is an increasing need of strategies aiming to reach a "sustainable use of veterinary pharmaceuticals". To this end, it is essential to develop tools, such as supporting information systems (SIS), for managing the environmental risks of veterinary pharmaceuticals on a territorial scale. In this context, we propose Sust-PHarm (SUSTainable use of veterinary Pharmaceuticals), a SIS useful to identify groundwater vulnerable areas to veterinary pharmaceuticals at both local and regional scale.

A moni-modelling approach to manage groundwater risk to pesticide leaching at regional scale.

Historically, the approach used to manage risk of chemical contamination of water bodies is based on the use of monitoring programmes, which provide a snapshot of the presence/absence of chemicals in water bodies. Monitoring is required in the current EU regulations, such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD), as a tool to record temporal variation in the chemical status of water bodies. More recently, a number of models have been developed and used to forecast chemical contamination of water bodies.

A client-server software for the identification of groundwater vulnerability to pesticides at regional level.

The groundwater VULnerability to PESticide software system (VULPES) is a user-friendly, GIS-based and client-server software developed to identify vulnerable areas to pesticides at regional level making use of pesticide fate models. It is a Decision Support System aimed to assist the public policy makers to investigate areas sensitive to specific substances and to propose limitations of use or mitigation measures. VULPES identify the so-called Uniform Geographical Unit (UGU) which are areas characterised by the same agro-environmental conditions.

Enhance knowledge on sustainable use of plant protection products within the framework of the sustainable use directive.

Background: In 2008-2009, a survey in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy collected information on the farm use of plant protection products (PPPs) and evaluated whether the provisions of the Directive for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides are applicable. It was concluded that the provisions can be implemented, even if some gaps need to be filled and also the behaviour of farmers needs to be improved. Moreover, it was observed that all stages in the use of PPPs on farms could generate risks for the operator and/or the environment.

Spatial and temporal trend of groundwater contamination from terbuthylazine and desethyl-terbuthylazine in the Lombardy Region (Italy).

In the last few years, several monitoring programs were established as an effect of the EU Directives which included requirements for monitoring the quality of water resources (drinking water, groundwater and surface water). Plant Protection Products (PPPs) are an obvious target for monitoring activities, since they are directly released into the environment. In Italy, the National Environmental Protection Agency (ISPRA) has recently published several reports containing the results of the National Plans for Control of Environmental Effects of PPPs.

Development of a management tool to indicate the environmental impact of organic viticulture.

Organic viticulture is an important part of the European Union organic farming sector, and, according to the most recent surveys, 1.5% of European Union wine originates from organic farms, with an upward trend. This paper describes an environmental impact of an organic viticulture indicator (EIOVI) that can be reliably used in the management of organic vineyards.

The effect of crop rotation on pesticide leaching in a regional pesticide risk assessment.

New modeling approaches that include the use of GIS are under development in order to allow a more realistic assessment of environmental contamination by pesticides. This paper reports a regional GIS-based risk assessment using a software tool able to simulate complex and real crop rotations at the regional scale. A single pesticide leaching assessment has been done.