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Review of
hydrologic assessment models for predicting pesticide
leaching in Nigeria
Usman Sheikh Abdullahi
Department of Geography, Umaru Musa
Yar’adua University, PMB2218, Katsina, Nigeria. E-mail:
uthmanabdullahi@yahoo.com.
Tel: 08035989328.
Accepted
June 15, 2010 |
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The need to evaluate the potential risks
of pesticides usage that may lead to contamination of water
resources has been the reason behind the development of
models for predicting pesticide leaching in soils and
watershed areas. Various assessment models have been
developed in the past. For example, the vulnerability of
groundwater to pesticide leaching may be evaluated by
indices and overlay-based methods, by statistical analyses
of monitoring data, or by using process-based models of
pesticide fate. Most of these models have been applied in
various parts of the world but with little or none
applicability in Nigeria. Since Nigeria is an agrarian
country whose soils and water resources have suffered
severely from the effects of pesticide contamination, the
need to inform decision on applicability of some of these
models becomes paramount. This paper thus provide a
descriptive synthesis of some of the models used in
predicting pesticide leaching in underground water and make
recommendation for their usage in assessing groundwater
contamination effects resulting from agricultural processes
in Nigeria.
Key
words:
Groundwater, model, pesticide, hydrologic, simulation,
management. |
