Second European Modelling Workshop

Pesticides in Groundwater
Lisbon, 6-7 June 2002

Modelling Pesticide Leaching and

Runoff in Rice Paddies with the
RICEWQ+VADOFT Package

Ettore Capri
Istituto di Chimica Agraria ed Ambientale,
UCSC, Piacenza, Italy
 Introduction

■ Rice issues
■ Environmental issues
■ Directive needs
■ Models lacking
 Objective

■ To evaluate a newly developed

modeling approach to predict the
overall pesticide fate in paddy field,
including leaching in the unsaturated
(vadose) zone.
 Materials and methods

■ Field site: the East Sesia, Italy;

2-yr field datasets (1997-1998).

■Test chemical: cinosulfuron at the dose

level of 39.5 and 41.5 g a.i./ha in 1997 and
1998 respectively.
Study
area
Piezometer
position
 Crop practice and water
management
Cynosulfuron 39.52 and 41.45
g/a.i. ha (1997 and 1998)
Water Sowing
Dry period
Preparation cycling in grain Harvest
Treatment Dry period Final dry
formation
Water over crop period
Steady
Paddy flood renewal emergence
water

From Sep.1
 Materials and methods

■Model release: the RICEWQ ver. 1.6.2 +

VADOFT Package
Model Package
Input files Input files

RICEWQ EXESUP
Core Interface
input files files files

Meteorolo- RICEWQ VADOFT VADOFT

gical file input files

Output files
 The RICEWQ model
● In terms of mass balance and using a
daily time step, RICEWQ model
simulation involves mathematically
tracking the total mass of chemical
residues in three medias of rice paddy:
rice foliage, water column, and benthic
sediments from the point of application.
That is,
 the RICEWQ model
● The package apply RICEWQ version 1.6.2 to
simulate the air drift, crop interception,
volatilization, pesticide decay, adsorption and
transformation in paddy surface water and
paddy sediment.
● For each process, the model has a set of
linear or non-linear theory formula. The reader
is suggested to refer to the RICEWQ version
1.6.1 manual (William, 1999).
The leaching process simulation--
VADOFT model

● Below the paddy sediment, VADOFT performs

one-dimensional transient or steady state
simulations of water flow and solute transport in
variably saturated porous media. The code
employs the Galerkin finite-element technique
to approximate the governing equations for flow
and transport. It allows for a wide range of
nonlinear flow conditions, and handles various
transport processes, including hydrodynamic
dispersion, advection, linear equilibrium
sorption, and first-order decay.
Properties RICEWQ package RICEWQ
ver. 1.6.1
Version 1.6.2 1.6.1
Platform Windows 9x DOS
Interface Yes No
VADOFT Yes No
Leaching Yes No
Parameters Field capacity, initial RICEWQ
soil moisture, ver. 1.6.1
RICEWQ and input file
VADOFT input file
The assumption of the model package

The
assumption
of RICEWQ

Runoff Paddy water: 9-11cm The assumption

of VADOFT
Active sediment: 5cm
Topsoil
systems: Leaching The 1st soil
20cm horizon: 5-
55 cm

Sub Soil Systems

The 2nd soil
horizon: 55-
514 cm

Ground
Groundwater water
 Results

Summary of estimated water balance

Properties 1997 1998
Water Percent of total Water Percent of total
(m3/ha) paddy water (m3/ha) paddy water output
output (%) (%)
Total paddy water input† 11067.2 8453.8
Total paddy water output: 11127.7 100.0 8482.4 100.0
Evapo-transpiration 6834.0 61.4 4732.0 55.8
Paddy water runoff 1096.7 9.9 552.4 6.5
Water inflow to soil profile 3197.0 28.7 3197.0 37.7
†
including irrigation, rainfall and paddy water volume difference at the initial and terminal simulation.
 The predicted vs. observed
pesticide runoff (ug/l)

6 Measured
Chemical runoff (ug/l)

Predicted†
5 Predicted‡

0
0 2 8 15 22 29 36 42 50 57 64 78
Days after the application
† Seepage rate=0.23 cm d-1;‡ Seepage rate=0.90 cm d-1.
 The predicted chemical leaching
concentration at 92.18 cm of soil depth
0.000025

Concentration (ug/l)
0.00002
0.00003 0.000015
Concentration (ug/l)

0.000025
0.00001
0.00002
0.000005
0.000015
0
0.00001

BT

1
36

57

13
0.000005

0
1998
BT

1
29

43

57

90
19

1997
 The predicted vs. observed
pesticide mass in paddy sediment

Cinusulfuron mass (mg/ha)

25000

Observed
20000
Predicted
15000

14000
Cinosulfuron mass (mg/ha)

10000

12000 Observed
5000
10000 Predicted

8000 0
0 15 22 43 64
6000
Days after the application

1998
4000

2000

0
0 21 42 64
Days after the application

1997
 The effect of seepage rate and NP
value on chemical mass balance

Chemical fate Predicted† Predicted‡ Predicted‡‡

Chemical % of Chemical % of Chemical % of
mass applied mass applied mass applied
(mg/ha) rate (mg/ha) rate (mg/ha) rate
Decay in paddy field 33353.1 80.5 33353.1 80.5 20880.2 50.4
Pesticide runoff 128.8 0.31 128.8 0.3 10.8 0.03
Leaching to vadose zone: 7968.1 19.2 7968.1 19.2 20551.0 49.6
Storage in vadose zone 224.9 0.5 224.9 0.5 262.0 0.6
Decay in vadose zone 7742.8 18.7 7742.8 18.7 20290.3 49.0
Leaching to groundwater 0 0 1.76E-16 4.24E-19 4.9852E-12 1.20E-14
† ‡ ‡‡
seepage rate=0.23 cm/day & NP value = 81; seepage rate=0.23 cm/day & NP value = 31; seepage rate=0.90
cm/day & NP value =31.
 The predicted pesticide leaching
concentration
Concentration (ug/l)
0 5 10
0

100 Concentration (ug/l)

0 5 10
Seepage rate=0.90
0
cm/d, NP=31
Depth (cm)

200
100
300 Concentration (ug/l)
0 1 2 3
200
Depth(cm)
400 0
300
500 100
400
Seepage rate=0.23 200

Depth (cm)
cm/d, NP=81 500 300

Seepage rate=0.23 400

cm/d, NP=31 500
 Discussions(1)

•The RICEWQ and VADOFT model linkage

can be applied to predict the pesticide
runoff, the dissipation in the paddy
water, and the leaching at the bottom of
soil column.
 Discussions(2)

•Water management, seepage rate and nodal

spacing set have a strong influence on the
fraction of chemical runoff and leaching.
The former is a site-specific property while
the latter is a model parameter. However,

•In the European registration point of view,

detailed national scenario definitions are
needed to correctly set these inputs.
 Discussions(3)

•In a scientific view, several model

enhancements are desirable. For examples,
water management strategies should be
improved to allow the simultaneous
simulation of irrigation with drainage.

•Additional model testing, e.g., volatilization

routines, is recommended to fulfill the
requirement of a full model evaluation.
 Working Group
Ettore CAPRI1

Marco TREVISAN1

Zewei MIAO1

W. Martin Williams2,

J. Mark Cheplick2

1Istituto di Chimica Agraria ed Ambientale,

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Piacenza - Italy
2 Waterborne Environmental, Inc.,

897-B Harrison Street, S. E. Leesburg, VA 20175, USA