AERU AGRICULTURE & ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH UNIT
AERU
What is AERU?
Kathy Lewis
John Tzilivakis
Andy Green
Doug Warner
Danielle Charlton
Associate staff
Phil Porter
Chantal Helm
Avice Hall
Ian Denholm
AERU's impact
Carbon footprinting
Pesticide profiling
Nutrient balancing
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Systems sustainability
Formulation & Evaluation
Pollutant fate
Whole systems modelling
PPDB - Pesticide Properties DataBase
BBPD - Bio-Pesticides DataBase
VSDB - Veterinary Substances DataBase
EFA Calculator
EMA & EMA Online
Environmental Management for Agriculture (EMA) was an award winning computer software package that provided a comprehensive suite of tools, information and assessment routines designed to help the farming industry improve its environmental performance. The software was for the 'public good' and included an advisory library, an environmental auditing system that provides immediate feedback on performance, more than 20 decision support tools and a number of management planning tools. The core of the software was developed between 1994 and 1997, and the first commercial version was released in 1998. EMA 2004 was the last version that was produced on CD. After 10 years of service (and over 4000 copies sold) it was retired in 2008 and is no longer for sale, but some copies are available for demonstration or educational purposes upon request. Some parts of the EMA system have gone on to form the foundation of other current tools and services. For example,the advisory library was used to build the foundation of the ADLib resource and the pesticide database, that was used in some of the decision support tools, has evolved in the Pesticide Properties DataBase (PPDB).
EMA was developed with the aid of funding from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD), the Milk Development Council (MDC) (now DairyCo) and the Horticultural Development Company (HDC). It won a number of awards including: runner up in Government's Science into Practice Awards in 1998; Millennium Product Status in 1999; and in 2001 it was the Overall winner Fruiterers' Company Environmental Awards.
EMA Online
The Advisory library that was developed for the EMA software is now available online via the EMA Online site. This uses the internet hosting, security and distribution controls of the Agricultural Document Library (ADLib) to manage and distribute the library to users.
Dr John Tzilivakis
©University of Hertfordshire, 2017.