SYNOPS-WEB, an online tool for environmental risk assessment to evaluate pesticide strategies on field level

Strategy development for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) requires suitable environmental risk assessment to upscale risks based on environmental parameters, pesticide properties, multi-exposures toxicity assessments and field-specific information on pesticide usage on landscape level. This paper introduces the easy-to-use environmental risk assessment tool SYNOPS-WEB to assess acute and chronic pesticide risks to soil, surface water and pollinators, as well as via leaching to groundwater. SYNOPS-WEB is a free-to-use online tool available for advisors and policy makers within the European Union to compare and assess pesticide risk under realistic application patterns and environmental conditions. The proposed methodology and structure of SYNOPS-WEB are described along with brief usage instructions. Model predictions for aquatic exposure assessment were evaluated on a four-year pesticide monitoring dataset from a small agricultural catchment. SYNOPS-WEB reliably modelled the aquatic exposure of pesticides detected during monitoring and additionally revealed risks from pesticides that could not be detected in surface water due to their high toxicity at concentrations close to the limit of quantification. Further evaluation of the tool is needed to assess model outputs concerning exposure assessment for soil, groundwater and field margin biotopes. Overall, SYNOPS-WEB has the potential to provide relevant information to European farmers, authorities and agronomists for developing and optimizing IPM strategies with particular focus on minimizing environmental risks. The structure of the model allows for future adaption and integration of novel approaches to risk assessment for a wider range of reference organisms and a larger set of mitigation measures.