CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The massive use of pesticides in the production of food and raw materials generates growing world concern dueto the numerous evidences of their negative effects on health and the environment. In countries where detailedinformation of agricultural pesticide use near to urban areas is not available, it is necessary have a simplemethodology that does not require data that are difficult to obtain in order to create an ecological indicator ofthe risk of pesticide contamination at the peri-urban level. The objective of this research is to generate a periurbanpesticide contamination risk index using satellite information and accessible scientific pesticide data. ThePeri-urban Pesticide Contamination Risk Index (PUPCRI) is composed of an indicator of the toxicity of the set ofpesticides used in each crop, and two factors that quantify the surface occupied by agricultural activity and thetree surface in the urban periphery. The Environmental Risk Index has been used to calculate the toxicity ofherbicides, insecticides and fungicides used in soybean, corn and wheat crops. Through the classification ofSentinel 2 satellite images, data was obtained of arable land, soybean, corn and wheat crops, and tree cover, indifferent peri-urban rings, with a maximum distance of two kilometers from the urban edge. The PUPCRI indexwas tested in 20 cities pertaining to the region with the highest agricultural productivity in Argentina. Theresults show that most of the cities have high to very high indices of exposure to pesticides, mainly due to theproximity of agricultural activity to the urban edge and the lack of tree cover. The PUPCRI index allows a quickand simple analysis of the potential risk of exposure to the use of crop pesticides in the urban periphery.