Assessing groundwater quality in Germany - What are the effects of pesticides? BGR relies on artificial intelligence for analysis

The use of synthetic chemical pesticides by conventional agriculture poses risks to humans, animals and plants because of the inputs into groundwater. In a research project, the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) is now investigating the extent to which the use of pesticides affects groundwater quality. For the Germany-wide assessment, the BGR is using artificial intelligence (AI) methods.

The project is financed by the German Environment Agency (UBA), which is responsible for assessing potential groundwater risks from pesticides as part of the statutory approval procedure. In the three-year research project "FARM" (Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment in the Approval Procedure for Pesticides), the BGR is going to quantify groundwater vulnerability to pesticides for the area of Germany. The project furthermore involves the development of a procedure that can be used to identify areas where groundwater is particularly at risk from the use of pesticides. In future, groundwater quality will be systematically measured in these areas. The results will provide an additional validation for the approval of pesticides.

The project is supported by the responsible state authorities, which provide data from their groundwater quality monitoring sites. The properties of active substances are going to be correlated to the properties of soils, rocks and groundwater, and agricultural practice. In the assessment the BGR is using machine learning methods for the first time to uncover spatio-temporal structures and identify correlations thanks to the extensive data in this context. In this way, the prevailing soil, hydrogeological and climatic site information of agricultural areas can be analysed in relation to the concentrations of pesticides in groundwater.

The study also uses satellite data to gain insight into the spatial distribution of crop types and the associated active ingredient application rates. Depending on the characteristics and application patterns of the pesticides, the risks for groundwater can thus be better identified.

BGR project manager Dr. Stefan Broda: "The project can provide an important contribution to making the approval procedures even safer and at the same time enable specific protection of groundwater from pollution by pesticides. This would support environmental protection measures and help to protect the quality of drinking water resources." The BGR expects the first results in autumn this year.