Simulation of the Glyphosate Aerial Spray Drift at the Ecuador-Colombia border
Glyphosate is one of the herbicides used by the Colombian government to spray coca fields close to the Ecuadorian border. The sprays have been taking place for a number of years and have been more frequent since 2000 (when \"Plan Colombia\" started).
Illustration of 10 km strip along the Ecuador-Colombia border. (Airplane not to scale.)
The spray drifts into Ecuadorian territory have become a big issue for people living close to the border. Their negative impact on health and agriculture have been observed and confirmed by intensive studies (e.g. [Avila et. al. 2007]). Hence, in 2005 Ecuador and Colombia signed an agreement to stop the sprays along a 10 km stripe at the border. However, measurements on Ecuadorian territory indicate that significant amounts of Glyphosate spray have still drifted into Ecuador.
The main goals of this project are to develop a (reverse) numerical simulation of the spray drift, analyze whether the 10 km stripe is enough to protect Ecuadorian territory and assess whether the agreement has been respected.
The video presented below gives a survey of the problems at hand and briefly introduces the strategy propose to solve it.
Researchers:
Dr. Hermann Mena (project director, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria)
Prof. Dr. Peter Benner (MPI Magdeburg, Germany)
Dr. Rene Schneider (TU Chemnitz, Germany)
Funded by:
SENESCYT (Ecuadorian National Organization of Science)
Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador
Related publications:
1. Mena H., Benner P., Schneider R., Mathematical model for the glyphosate aerial sprays at Ecuador-Colombia border (in Spanish), Shaker-Verlag, Aachen, 2014, 208 pages (ISBN: 978-3-8440-3061-7).
2. Drugs, Herbicides, and Numerical Simulation (with P. Benner and R. Schneider), Snapshots of modern Mathematics from Oberwolfach, No. 11/2013, 9 pages, September (2014).
3. Modelling of the Glyphosate Aerial Spray Drift at the Ecuador-Colombia border, (with: P. Benner and R. Schneider), submitted for publication.
4. 3D simulation of the Glzphosate Aerial Spray Drift at the Ecuador-Colombia border, (with: P. Benner, R. Schneider and J. Lang), in preparation.
Related talks:
1. How Herbicides Advanced Applied Math in Ecuador, Hot Topic session at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum HLF, Heidelberg, Germany, September 2014
2. Drugs, Herbicides and Numerical Simulation, Optimization and Aplications Seminar, International Congress of Mathematics, ICM 2014, Seoul, Korea, August 2014
3. The Glyphosate Aerial Spray -Drift at the Ecuador-Colombia border, Deparment of Mathematics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria, May 2013
4. Simulation of the Glyphosate Aerial Spray Drift at the Ecuador-Colombia border, Absolventen-Seminar Numerische Mathematik, TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany, June 2012
5. Dispersión del glifosato en la frontera norte, II Jornadas de Ingeniería Civil y Ambiental, Quito, Ecuador, June 2011.
6. Simulación de la fumigación con glifosato en la frontera con Colombia, Feria SENACYT 2009, Quito, Ecuador, December 2009.
Posters related with the project:
Feria SENACYT 2009;Centro de Exposiciones Quito, December 11.-13. 2009 Quito Ecuador
Mathematics Day, University of Innsbruck, April 2014, Innsbruck, Austria
Tags: Optimal control