Leaching of agricultural chemicals in soil depends on a number of factors, including field hydrological properties, local meteorology, chemical use, and environmental fate characteristics. Computer models for pesticide soil leaching assessment take into account these factors to a various extent. This presentation evaluates three models, SCI-GROW, PRZM3.12, and kinetic-PRZM, each of which represents a different level of sophistication for these factors. SCI-GROW is a Tier 1 regulatory model developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), which is based on a regression with shallow groundwater monitoring data. PRZM3.12 is a comprehensive field scale model which takes into account all major factors in an agricultural field. The model kinetic-PRZM was developed based on PRZM3.12 after incorporating sorption kinetics in the fate subroutine. A regional-scale soil data set is run by each of the models. Distributions of model outputs are compared to evaluate the sensitivity of the processes each model represents a group of statistical metrics. Propagation of variability in inputs and simplification of the environmental fate processes will be examined. Validity of using simple models for regional-scale leaching assessment will be discussed.

Comparison of three leaching models of different sophistication for estimating shallow groundwater concentrations

246th National Meeting (2013)

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