Pesticide Mitigation Prioritization Model (PMPM) - Environmental Release Tool and Results

Pesticides continue to pose a significant threat to the environment,
endangering both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, effectively
targeting and reducing pesticide toxicity in the environment faces several
challenges. These challenges include evaluating toxicity over large areas,
obtaining precise spatiotemporal data on pesticide use, assessing
cumulative toxicity, and identifying the health and economic impacts of
pesticide application sites. To address these challenges, we present the
Environmental Release Tool, a sub-tool of the Pesticide Mitigation
Prioritization Model. This tool aims to advance the understanding in these
four areas and facilitate pesticide management by promoting collaboration
between experts and non-experts. It employs a framework that generates
user-friendly graphical and tabular summaries of pesticide impact
information, contextualized within management opportunities. While the
Pesticide Mitigation Prioritization Model can be applied across the United
States, its utility is particularly valuable in California. This is
because the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) hosts the
most comprehensive pesticide use data globally. The CDPR's Pesticide
Use Reports (PUR) database records agricultural pesticide applications on
a daily time step and at the scale of one square mile (2.6 square
kilometers) per application site. Leveraging this extensive database, we
have integrated it directly into the Pesticide Mitigation Prioritization
Model. This integration enables us to rapidly quantify the applied
pesticide toxicity by chemical, source, and watershed across California,
typically within seconds to minutes.