Problem formulation and conceptual framework for landscape-based environmental risk assessment of pesticides
Environment International, vol. 215, pp. 110448
Abstract
The use of plant protection products (PPPs) remains a major concern for biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, and human health, even under robust regulatory oversight. Current regulatory assessments are often fragmented: they typically examine single substances and single crops in isolation at local or simplified scales. As a result, they struggle to capture the cumulative and combined effects of multiple PPPs and the way exposure propagates and interacts across space and time (fields, crops, and seasons). Our previously proposed landscape-based Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) framework offered an integrative solution. By jointly representing agricultural practices, environmental characteristics, species movement among habitats, and the combined impacts of multiple PPPs, the current framework delivers predictions that are more adapted to the field reality. These insights are valuable both for regulatory decision-making and for understanding how PPP risks contribute to the overall environmental stress. In this manuscript, we explore the needs, challenges, opportunities, and modelling tools for implementing a landscape-based ERA in both prospective (ex-ante) and retrospective (ex-post) contexts. Drawing on expert discussions and collaborative initiatives, we propose a conceptual framework with four pillars: (1) flexibility to meet diverse user and stakeholder needs, different decision contexts, and varying data availability; (2) ecological realism, the capacity to represent multiple stressors, cumulative effects, exposure pathways driven by species movement, and recovery dynamics; (3) data integration and transparency, combining monitoring and regulatory datasets for calibration, validation, uncertainty analysis, and reproducibility; and (4) regulatory uptake and interoperability, ensuring compatibility with existing ERA methodologies and producing outputs that can be interpreted and used at the landscape level across jurisdictions and tools. Beyond regulatory compliance, landscape-based ERA is a dynamic and adaptative system that provides a robust scientific basis for setting protection goals, designing targeted risk mitigation measures, shaping sustainable agricultural strategies, and communicating realistic, multi-stressor risk trade-offs to stakeholders and the public.
Authors 33
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Instituto de Salud Carlos III · Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental
Affiliation as printed
Spanish National Environmental Health Center. Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: ana.fernandez@isciii.es
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Federal Office for the Environment
Affiliation as printed
Federal Office for the Environment, FOEN, Bern, Switzerland
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Affiliation as printed
Swedish Chemicals Agency, Sundbyberg, Sweden
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Université Paris-Saclay · Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · AgroParisTech · Écologie Fonctionnelle et Écotoxicologie des Agroécosystèmes
Affiliation as printed
Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR EcoSys, 91120 Palaiseau, France
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Université Paris-Saclay · Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · AgroParisTech · Écologie Fonctionnelle et Écotoxicologie des Agroécosystèmes
Affiliation as printed
Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR EcoSys, 91120 Palaiseau, France
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Université Paris-Saclay · Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · AgroParisTech · Écologie Fonctionnelle et Écotoxicologie des Agroécosystèmes
Affiliation as printed
Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR EcoSys, 91120 Palaiseau, France
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Office Français de la Biodiversité
Affiliation as printed
French Agency for Biodiversity (OFB), Direction de la Recherche et de l'Appui Scientifique (DRAS), Vincennes, France
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Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · Laboratoire d'étude des Interactions Sol - Agrosystème - Hydrosystème
Affiliation as printed
French Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), Soil-Agrosystem-Hydrosystem Interaction Lab (LISAH) Montpellier Cedex, France. Electronic address: cecile.dages@inrae.fr
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Université Paris-Saclay · Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · AgroParisTech · Écologie Fonctionnelle et Écotoxicologie des Agroécosystèmes · Office Français de la Biodiversité
Affiliation as printed
Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR EcoSys, 91120 Palaiseau, France; French Agency for Biodiversity (OFB), Direction de la Recherche et de l'Appui Scientifique (DRAS), Vincennes, France
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European Food Safety Authority
Affiliation as printed
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy
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European Food Safety Authority
Affiliation as printed
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy
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Affiliation as printed
German Environment Agency (UBA), Dessau, Leipzig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Research Center Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
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Instituto de Salud Carlos III · Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental
Affiliation as printed
Spanish National Environmental Health Center. Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: mcgonzalez@isciii.es
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RWTH Aachen University · Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Affiliation as printed
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), System-Ecotoxicology, Leipzig, Germany; RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Environmental Research, Aachen, Germany
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Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar · University of Aveiro
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies & Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
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Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Alimentation, de l’Environnement et du Travail
Affiliation as printed
Regulated Products Assessment Directorate, Anses (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety), Maisons-Alfort, France
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Affiliation as printed
Research Division Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland
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Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos
Affiliation as printed
Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) UCLM-CSIC-JCCM. Ciudad Real, Spain
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Affiliation as printed
NIVA Denmark Water Research, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Université Paris-Saclay · Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · AgroParisTech · Écologie Fonctionnelle et Écotoxicologie des Agroécosystèmes
Affiliation as printed
Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR EcoSys, 91120 Palaiseau, France
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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Affiliation as printed
Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45141 Essen, Germany and Research Centre One Health Ruhr, Research Alliance Ruhr, Germany
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UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Affiliation as printed
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Benson Lane, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK
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Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Affiliation as printed
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), System-Ecotoxicology, Leipzig, Germany
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University of Coimbra · Laboratório Associado TERRA
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE), TERRA Associate Laboratory, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
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UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Affiliation as printed
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Benson Lane, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK
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Office Français de la Biodiversité
Affiliation as printed
French Agency for Biodiversity (OFB), Direction de la Recherche et de l'Appui Scientifique (DRAS), Vincennes, France
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Affiliation as printed
NIVA Denmark Water Research, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Affiliation as printed
Social-Ecological Systems Simulation Centre, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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Affiliation as printed
German Environment Agency (UBA), Dessau, Leipzig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Research Division Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Zurich, Switzerland
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Instituto de Salud Carlos III · Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental
Affiliation as printed
Spanish National Environmental Health Center. Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: jtarazona@isciii.es
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