SAFE#
Purpose#
SAFE (Select Application date For Evaluation) is a software tool intended to assist users with setting up and running sets of simulations as part of the exposure assessment for plant protection products applied in greenhouses. SAFE is used in combination with the Greenhouse Emission Model (GEM) tool for soilless1 and soil-bound assessments2.
The predicted environmental concentration of a GEM assessment is potentially highly sensitive to the date on which the substance is applied. Since the aim of the assessment is to estimate exposure for realistic worst case conditions, a PEC value based on a single assessment may result in substantial underestimation. Due to the complex interactions in the models underlying GEM, it is not possible to a priori determine the application date which results in a realistic worst-case PEC. This problem is solved by performing multiple assessments with different application dates, which is the purpose of SAFE.
Why a new SAFE version?#
The previous version of SAFE3 came in two variants: one for soilless assessments and one for soil-bound groundwater assessments. These variants had large differences in functionality and look-and-feel of the user interface. Moreover, both were not compatible with assessments created with GEM 5.5.3. As of version 2.0.0, SAFE supports both types of assessments with a single interface. Note that this version can only be used for assessments created with version 5.5.3 of GEM. Also, some functionality of the previous SAFE variants is (currently) not supported (see here).