A GIS model-based screening of potential contamination of soil and water by pyrethroids in Europe

The paper presents a geographic information system (GIS) model-based approach for analysis of potential contamination of soil and water by pyrethroids for the European continent. Pyrethroids are widely used pesticides and their chemical and toxicological characteristics suggest there may be concerns about human health and ecosystems, although so far there is no strong evidence indicating actual risk. However, little monitoring has been conducted and limited experimental information is available. We perform an assessment exercise that demonstrates how accessible information and GIS-based modeling allow to estimate the spatial distribution of chemical concentrations and fluxes at a screening level. The assessment highlights potential hot spots and the main environmental transport pathways, in a quick and simple way. By combining information on pesticide use, crop distribution and landscape and climate parameters we identify potential problem areas to help focusing monitoring campaigns. The approach presented here is simple and fast, and can be applied to virtually all pesticide classes used over a large domain, and is therefore suitable for the screening of large quantities of chemicals, of which the majority has not undergone any systematic environmental monitoring program. The method has been tested through benchmarking with other well-established models. However, further research is needed to evaluate it against experimental observations.