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Pesticides entering agricultural surface waters threaten water quality and aquatic communities. Recently, vegetated treatment systems (VTSs) (e.g., constructed wetlands and vegetated ditches) have been proposed as pesticide risk mitigation measures. However, little is known about the effectiveness of VTSs in controlling nonpoint source pesticide pollution and factors relevant for pesticide retention within these systems. Here, we conducted a meta‐analysis on pesticide mitigation by VTSs using data from the scientific literature and the European LIFE ArtWET project. Overall, VTSs effectively reduced pesticide exposure levels (i.e., the majority of pesticide retention performances was >70%). A multiple linear regression analysis of 188 retention performance cases identified the two pesticide properties, organic carbon sorption coefficient value and water‐phase 50% dissipation time, as well as the VTS characteristics overall plant coverage and hydraulic retention time for targeting high efficacy of pesticide retention. The application of a Tier I risk assessment (EU Uniform Principle) revealed a higher toxicity reduction for hydrophobic and nonpersistent insecticides compared with less sorptive and not readily degradable herbicides and fungicides. Overall, nearly half (48.5%) of all pesticide field concentrations (n= 130) failed Tier I standard risk assessment at the inlet of VTSs, and 29.2% of all outlet concentrations exceeded conservative acute threshold levels. We conclude that VTSs are a suitable and effective risk mitigation strategy for agricultural nonpoint source pesticide pollution of surface waters. Further research is needed to improve their overall efficacy in retaining pesticides.

A new coupled model (PCPF–SWMS) was developed for simulating fate and behavior of pollutant in paddy water and paddy soil. The model coupled the PCPF-1, a lumped model simulating pesticide concentrations in paddy water and 1 cm-surface sediment compartment, and the SWMS-2D, a finite element numerical model solving Richard's and advection-dispersion equations for solute transport in soil compartment. The coupling involved improvements on interactions of the water flow and the concentration the pollutant of at the soil interface between both compartments. The monitoring data collected from experimental plots in Tsukuba, Japan in 1998 and 1999 were used to parameterise and calibrate hydraulic functioning, hydrodynamic and hydrodispersive parameters of the paddy soil. The analysis on the hydraulic functioning of paddy soil revealed that the hard pan layer was the key factor controlling percolation rate and tracer transport. Matric potential and tracer monitoring highlighted the evolution of saturated hydraulic conductivity (KS) of hard pan layer during the crop season. KSslightly decreased after puddling by clay clogging and strongly increased after mid term drainage by drying cracks. The model was able to calculate residential time in every soil layers. Residential time of tracer in top saturated layers was evaluated to be less than 40 days. It took 60 days to reach the unsaturated layers below hardpan layer.A new coupled model (PCPF–SWMS) was developed for simulating fate and behavior of pollutant in paddy water and paddy soil. The model coupled the PCPF-1, a lumped model simulating pesticide concentrations in paddy water and 1 cm-surface sediment compartment, and the SWMS-2D, a finite element numerical model solving Richard's and advection-dispersion equations for solute transport in soil compartment. The coupling involved improvements on interactions of the water flow and the concentration the pollutant of at the soil interface between both compartments. The monitoring data collected from experimental plots in Tsukuba, Japan in 1998 and 1999 were used to parameterise and calibrate hydraulic functioning, hydrodynamic and hydrodispersive parameters of the paddy soil. The analysis on the hydraulic functioning of paddy soil revealed that the hard pan layer was the key factor controlling percolation rate and tracer transport. Matric potential and tracer monitoring highlighted the evolution of saturated hydraulic conductivity (KS) of hard pan layer during the crop season. KSslightly decreased after puddling by clay clogging and strongly increased after mid term drainage by drying cracks. The model was able to calculate residential time in every soil layers. Residential time of tracer in top saturated layers was evaluated to be less than 40 days. It took 60 days to reach the unsaturated layers below hardpan layer.

The generic crop model STICS was modified to take into account shallow water-table fluctuations and subsurface drainage in the context of French waterlogged soils. This was accomplished by incorporating a subsurface drainage component into STICS code. The SIDRA (Simulation du Drainage) model was adapted to a daily time-step. For the dimensional aspect, the passage from two-dimensional drainage functioning to STICS one-dimensional conceptualization is done by taking an average water elevation between drain and mid-drain spacing. Simulation performances of the new STICS were evaluated by comparing its predictions with six years (1979–1983 and 1985–1986) of measured data from the field experiment of Arrou, located in northern France. Comparisons of STICS predictions with the measurements of drain-flow rates, total drained volumes and depths to water table for different crops and drain spacings were satisfactory. Nevertheless, the performances were better for drain spacings of less than 20 m and for winter crops or covers.