Development of an environmental indicator which can be used on national and regional scales for evaluating pesticide emissions in The Netherlands

As part of the new governmental program on pesticides the Dutch ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management & Fisheries and the ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning & the Environment have jointly commissioned the development of the Dutch National Environmental Indicator for Pesticides. This has resulted in a tool which is able to estimate emissions and the resulting potential ecotoxicological effects resulting from the agricultural use of pesticides on a detailed geographical scale. The tool is able to give insight into contributions of individual crops, active substances and can distinghuish between times of application. Present capabilities are illustrated with some examples of results of calculations. Future developments will also be discussed in some detail.