Louise Wipfler on Modelling the Future of Holistic Environmental Risk Assessment
A rice-grower overlooking his fields (AI-generated).
“What we seek to accomplish is to achieve a deeper mechanistic understanding of how chemicals affect ecosystems and to complement the findings from the local case studies. ”
You’ve led major pesticide programs for the Dutch Ministry and now manage the AENEAS and PERA projects for EFSA. Drawing from that experience, what is the biggest “regulatory hurdle” you hope SYBERAC will clear? In other words, how will the tools you are developing in WP3 change the way a European regulator looks at a chemical's risk compared to the traditional methods we use today?
I am not sure if we will be able to clear regulatory hurdles within the scope of this project. What I hope to achieve is that we showcase how a holistic risk assessment could look like and to help shape the direction of future developments. By connecting with local, national and European public and private stakeholders we hope that our findings will be developed further by scientists and societal partners.
Could you please describe your role and specific tasks within the project?
I am work package lead of WP3 in the project and MT member.
In your opinion, what is the most important takeaway message that the SYBERAC project offers to the public?
We want to demonstrate the added value of moving beyond a single-substance paradigm towards a more holistic approach to environmental risk assessment (ERA). By adopting a landscape-level perspective that considers multiple sources, pathways, and stressors together, we seek to improve understanding while also identifying opportunities for mitigation measures.
A key aspect of the adopted approach is a close collaboration with stakeholders throughout the case studies. This ensures that insights are developed jointly, aligned with stakeholder needs, and tailored to the specific context of each case study. At the same time, we promote shared learning across all case studies, allowing knowledge and experiences from one context to inform and strengthen others.
You are leading the SYBERAC Work Package 3 that focuses on modelling. WP3 does not work in isolation. It acts as a bridge between case studies, other work packages and stakeholders. Could you elaborate more on what WP3 seeks to accomplish?
A holistic approach to environmental risk assessment requires consideration of processes at the landscape scale. Within Work Package 3, we develop modelling approaches that connect local information on chemical emissions to their fate across different environmental compartments, and ultimately to their effects on organisms at both the individual and population level. These interactions are studied within a landscape-scale context.
What we seek to accomplish is to achieve a deeper mechanistic understanding of how chemicals affect ecosystems and to complement the findings from the local case studies. For example, we investigate how landscape features such as hedgerows can influence ecosystem resilience across different landscape types. Ultimately, we aim to extrapolate insights gained from the case studies to broader contexts and other locations. This can support stakeholders in evaluating how different land management strategies may affect biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.
“By engaging with local, national, and European public and private stakeholders, I hope that that the knowledge and approaches developed within the project continue will evolve beyond the project itself. Hopefully, our findings will inspire and support further development by both the scientific community and societal partners.”
