FOOTPRINT Project policy relevance

The FOOTPRINT project has developed robust and harmonised procedures for pesticide risk assessment, allowing consistent assessments to be performed from the scale of the farm to that of the EU. This has been achieved through the provision of a suite of three risk assessment and management tools (FOOT-FS , FOOT-CRS and FOOT-NES ) tailored to meet the requirements and expectations of different target users.

Given the wide scope covered by the set of three tools, FOOTPRINT is expected to contribute to a large range of existing and future EU policy instruments and directives, including:

The FOOTPRINT project was designed to integrate into the existing legal framework and risk assessment practices in place in the EU and member states (91/414/EEC, WFD, FOCUS recommendations), and to provide a valuable contribution to the future revision of the Directive 91/414/EEC. The general risk assessment philosophy implemented in the FOOT tools is based on current EU practices, but also allows for more advanced and innovative risk assessment approaches. The definition of a large number of soil, climatic, agronomic and subsoil scenarios provides direct supporting information for the design and implementation of the zonal approach being considered by the European Commission.

FOOTPRINT and the Water Framework Directive
The tools produced in FOOTPRINT are expected to contribute significantly to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive with regard to the risk of pesticide contamination of surface and groundwaters. Aspects where a valuable contribution of the FOOT tools is envisaged include the design and optimisation of surveillance programs to monitor the quality of waters across the EU, and the targeting of priority areas to support the design and implementation of river basin management plans. One of the strengths of the proposed work is that althouigh the three tools operate at different scales, they share the same underlying scientific principles, thereby ensuring a harmonised approach to risk assessment. The combination of scales will help to transform results available at the broader scales into effective measures at the farm scale within the context of operational programmes of measures.

FOOTPRINT and the Groundwater Daughter Directive
The FOOTPRINT project will contribute to the Groundwater Daughter Directive by providing catchment/regional-scale and national/European-scale GIS tools allowing the identification of agricultural areas significantly contributing to groundwater recharge. An output of particular interest in this respect is FOOTPRINT SUGAR, a map of Europe displaying areas contributing to water runoff and/or infiltration, therby providing a basis for EU-wide groundwater vulnerability assessments.

FOOTPRINT and the Future Thematic Strategy On The Sustainable Use Of Pesticides
The FOOTPRINT project will mainly contribute to the Future Thematic Strategy On The Sustainable Use Of Pesticides through FOOT-FS, a farm-level decision support tool. Based on a local assessment of crop protection practices and identification of landscape elements on the farm, FOOT-FS helps identify the pathways in the landscape leading to contamination of surface and groundwaters and proposes practical recommendations to reduce contamination (e.g. compound substitution strategies, the optimisation of pesticide application practices, the adaptation of the landscape).