The Dutch Pesticide Risk Indicator (Nationale Milieu Indicator/NMI) calculates emission indicators and environmental risk indicators resulting from the agricultural use of pesticides in The Netherlands. The results can be used to support evaluations of the sustainable plant protection policies of the Dutch Government.
The NMI considers pesticide applications to the most common agricultural crops, with different types of applications in arable crops and greenhouse crop systems. The model can generate results for active ingredients and metabolites of plant protection products. The NMI comprises of a number of simple models that can estimate emissions towards surface water, groundwater and air adjacent to the treated field, and the corresponding risk to the aquatic ecosystem in the field ditch. The methodology is derived from more sophisticated models, tools and guidance intended for use in registration.
For each application of a plant protection product in the input dataset, a single row per substance with national average results is generated. These national average results for individual applications are aggregated (summated) per application type, compound, crop, crop group, sector, and combinations of these.
NMI databases with input are prepared by experts from WEnR in collaboration with source data owners. The NMI 4 was developed by WEnR in co-operation with Envista Consultancy. Expert users from WEnR run the model and post-process the results:
- The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu / RIVM) publishes the pesticide emissions to surface water and to air at the Dutch emission inventory (EmissieRegistratie)
- The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Planbureau voor de leefomgeving / PBL) publishes the pesticide emission and risk indicators at the Compendium for the Living Environment (Compendium voor de Leefomgeving / CLO)
The NMI generates annual-based, national results. These can be used to derive trends in emissions or aquatic risk (ex-post), or to compare different mitigation scenarios (ex-ante). For groups of applications of similar type, the results can also be used for ranking substances, for mapping, and for comparison with other datasets such as monitoring results and/or emissions from sewage plants and other types of land-use.
Detailed, intermediate NMI results, such as the estimated exposure concentration in a specific spatial unit and time, don’t express the actual level of risk which may be considered in registration procedures. The effect of uncertainties of the input and methodology on the results was not investigated. At national scale, these uncertainties are assumed to be averaged out and the results are assumed to be more plausible.
