A review of pesticide policies and regulations for urban amenity areas in seven European countries

Abstract

Summary An analysis of the regulations of herbicide use for weed control in non‐agricultural/urban amenity areas, including actual pesticide use, was carried out as a joint survey of seven European countries: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom. Herbicides constitute the major part of the pesticides used in urban amenity areas. Herbicide use on hard surfaces is the largest in terms of volume and potential contamination of surface and groundwater. The aim of the study was to investigate the differences in political interest and public debate on the ‘use of pesticides in public urban amenity areas’, regulations within each country at national, regional and local levels, possible use of alternative weed control methods and the amounts of pesticides used on urban amenity areas. A comparative analysis revealed major differences in political interest, regulations and availability of statistics on pesticide use. Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany have, or have had, a strong public and political interest for reducing the use of herbicides to control weeds in urban amenity areas and also have very strict regulations. The UK is currently undergoing a period of increasing awareness and strengthening regulation, while Latvia and Finland do not have specific regulations for weed control in urban amenity areas or on hard surfaces. Statistics on pesticide/herbicide use on urban amenity areas were only available in Denmark and the Netherlands. Developing this kind of information base reveals the differences in herbicide use, regulations and policies in European countries and may enhance the transfer of knowledge on sustainable weed control across countries.

Applications of SuDS Techniques in Harvesting Stormwater for Landscape Irrigation Purposes: Issues and Considerations

“…Although several herbicides are in use, glyphosate-containing herbicides (GCH) are by far the most widely used herbicide for weed control on hard surfaces [32][33][34][35]. Recent work on the impact of GCH on pollution atenuation and biodegradation in a PPS indicated that GCH is not retained in the PPS structure and is subject to rapid wash through in response to water movement thus increasing the potential risk of reaching receiving environments [36].…”

Image analysis as a non-destructive method to assess regrowth of weeds after repeated flame weeding

“…In many countries the risk of pollution of the environment has led to restrictions on pesticide use, and herbicides have been replaced by other means like flame weeding or mechanical weed control, e.g., in urban areas (Bond & Grundy, 2001;Kristoffersen et al, 2008a). These methods control a wide range of annual weed species, but plant species with protected meristems such as grass weeds and some perennial weed species pose a special problem because of their ability to regrow after treatment (Ascard, 1994(Ascard, , 1995Andreasen et al, 2002).…”

Efficiency of Pesticide Alternatives in Non-Agricultural Areas

“…With these results, the political interest in the environment could be considered as moderate (Kristoffersen et al, 2008). Thus, adoption of an ethical attitude will be limited until citizen support is expected.…”

“…Thus, adoption of an ethical attitude will be limited until citizen support is expected. For example, despite its legislation strictly controlling urban pesticide use since 1954, Finnish people do not show a willingness to complete its legislation by greater amenity pesticide control (Kristoffersen et al, 2008). Moreover, hard surfaces or the status of amenity areas could curb initiatives: in the United Kingdom, administrative land fragmentation results in local authorities being responsible for weed control (Grundy, 2007).…”

“…Neither a downward nor an upward trend seems to dominate, even if atrazine metabolite DEA is increasing compared to active chemicals. Approximately 10% of pesticide quantities spread stem from nonagricultural use in developed countries Kristoffersen et al, 2008). Municipalities maintain recreational gardens and playing fields.…”