Managing pesticide risks for non-target ecosystems with pesticide risk indicators: a multi-criteria approach

In the search for effective pesticide risk management tools, the design of pesticide risk indicators is nowadays receiving increasing attention as a complement to more established regulatory strategies. In the present paper, we apply some recently developed pesticide risk indices and test their potential for management purposes. A pilot approach is proposed, which explores pesticide worst-case hazard scenarios at different space-time scales by means of a set of five ecotoxicological risk indices. The results are then interpreted from the perspective of a decision support method using the so-called critical threshold value approach. Our risk analysis is then enriched within a multi-criteria framework which integrates environmental, agronomic and economic objectives.

Keywords: pesticides, hazard assessment, risk assessment, risk indices, decision support tools, decision support systems, DSS, multicriteria analysis, risk management, risk indicators, ecosystems, toxicology, threshold value approach, environmental management