Join Waterborne at this year's XVIII Symposium on Pesticide Chemistry “Next Generation Solutions and Sustainable Frontiers," held September 2nd - 4th in Cremona, Italy. Waterborne's Principal and Manager, Environmental Modeling and Risk Assessment, Amy Ritter, along with Dean Desmarteau, have co-authored multiple papers being presenting during the Symposium:

Thursday (September 3rd)

9:50 – 10:10 Bringing Real‑World Rice Cultivation Practices into Environmental Risk Assessment, co-authors: Wenkui He, Amy Ritter, Dean Desmarteau, Elisa Mascanzoni, Natalino Dalla Valle, and Anatasia Del Signore

The highlights of this presentation are the following:

• European rice cultivation involves dynamic flooding–drying cycles that are not represented in the static MedRice framework.
• Rice and Riverine models (RiceWQ/RivWQ) simulations explicitly capture hydrological dynamics, paddy–canal interactions, and metabolite formation and degradation processes.
• Concentrations in surface water differ substantially between RiceWQ/RivWQ and MedRice, with larger differences for metabolites than for parent compounds.
• Incorporating regionally representative, dynamic modelling improves the scientific robustness and regulatory relevance of a rice environmental risk assessment.

15:00 – 15:20 Recommendations from the SETAC Working Group for a Harmonised Framework for Spatially Distributed Pesticide Leaching Modelling in Europe, co-authors: Aaldrik Tiktak, Anton Poot, Bernhard Jene, Gerco Hoogeweg, Maarten Braakhekke, Louise Wipfler, Pavan Cornelissen, Judith Klein, Michael Stemmer, Amy Ritter, Robin Sur, Gregor Spickermann, Gerard B. M. Heuvelink, Greg Hughes, Stephan Marahrens, Stefan Reichenberger, Nicoleta Suciu and Michelle Morris.

This presentation provide an update from a SETAC Working Group representing regulatory authorities, academia, industry and research organisations on developing a harmonised European framework for Spatially Distributed Leaching Modelling (SDLM), which builds on the tiered structure of the FOCUS groundwater guidance. The framework uses the regulatory‑established process‑based models PEARL and PELMO to ensure consistency across all tiers. A transparent clustering approach (~10,000 representative clusters) is applied to efficiently capture European pedo‑climatic and cropping variability while maintaining computational feasibility. Harmonised, publicly available datasets for soil, climate, land use and cropping were systematically assessed and selected in line with Good Modelling Practice principles, substantially improving realism compared with legacy datasets used in earlier SDLM approaches.

Friday (September 4th)

11:40 – 12:00  VFSMOD – Joining the Path Forward?, co-authors: Robin Sur, Rafael Muñoz-Carpena, Stefan Reichenberger, Bernhard Jene, Nicoleta Alina Suciu, Igor Kondzielski, Elena Alonso-Prados, Roger Holten, Andrew Bailey, Peter Rainbird, Horatio Meyer, Amy Ritter

This presentation will provide a summary of the findings from the 2024 Piacenza VFSMOD Workshop and the final resolutions document along with the present state of science regarding the recent version of VFSMOD and SWAN. Potential options on the next step for a wider acceptance of VFSMOD by regulatory authorities through a guidance and harmonization document will be discussed.