SyPEP: A system for predicting the environmental impact of pesticides in Belgium

SyPEP (System for Predicting the Environmental impact of Pesticides) has been developed at VAR in order to assist the legal authorities with decision making in the field of environmental impact of pesticides. This system considers surface- and groundwater as environmental compartments and deals mostly with the toxicity towards aquatic organisms (short-term and long-term effects). The first step is the calculation of Predicted Environmental Concentrations in surface and groundwater: PECsw and PECgw, respectively. The second step is the calculation of Toxicity Exposure Ratios (TER) which are then converted into scores. SyPEP has been compared to other environmental indicators within the framework of the GAPER project (Concerted Action on Pesticide Environmental Risk indicators financed by DG6 of the European Commission).