title: Environmentally Optimised Sprayer (EOS)--A software application for comprehensive assessment of environmental safety features of sprayers.
abstract: Despite technological progress in pesticide application equipment, chemical crop protection continues to contribute to environmental pollution. Water is at risk of contamination with pesticides from point and diffuse sources and could be reduced to a great extent with a better sprayer design. The sprayer manufacturers and pesticide applicators need to take more responsibility for the prevention of water pollution and therefore they have to make environmentally responsible decisions at different stages, from designing to servicing sprayers. The objective of the presented work was to develop an interactive application that would support decisions made by sprayer manufacturers during the production process, and by pesticide applicators when selecting and operating the sprayers. The EOS (Environmentally Optimised Sprayer) is an application evaluating the risk mitigation potential of sprayers based on their technological features, within five risk areas, representing sources of pollution: (i) Inside Contamination; (ii) Outside Contamination; (iii) Filling; (iv) Spray Loss & Drift; (v) Remnants. The evaluator completes the EOS questionnaire by checking for the technical solutions identified in the evaluated sprayer and the result reflects the sprayer quality in terms of potential environmental risk mitigation. The EOS tool also proved its awareness raising facility and educative value when used during training activities and university courses.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Horticulture, Konstytucji 3 Maja 1/3, 96-100 Skierniewice, Poland. Electronic address: grzegorz.doruchowski@inhort.pl.
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Doruchowski
authors.affiliation: University of Torino-DiSAFA, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, Grugliasco, Torino, 10095, Italy. Electronic address: paolo.balsari@unito.it.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Balsari
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Esteve Terradas, 8, 08860 Castelldefels, Spain. Electronic address: emilio.gil@upc.edu.
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.affiliation: University of Torino-DiSAFA, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, Grugliasco, Torino, 10095, Italy. Electronic address: paolo.marucco@unito.it.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marucco
authors.affiliation: Better Decisions, Haverlandhöhe 21a, D 48249 Dülmen, Germany. Electronic address: manfred.roettele@betterdecisions.de.
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roettele
authors.affiliation: Julius Kühn-Institut-JKI, Messeweg 11-12, Braunschweig, 38104, Germany. Electronic address: hans-joachim.wehmann@jki.bund.de.
authors.forename: Hans-Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Wehmann
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis*; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D010575:Pesticides
keywords: E-learning; Environmental risk; Risk mitigation; Training; Water protection