SYSTEMS APPROACHES IN EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PLANT-DISEASE MANAGEMENT

This contribution to Zadoks' liber amicorum reviews the developments i n quantitative epidemiology during the last decades. It elucidates the progress in this field and shows how empirical crop protection with m any phenomenological aspects transformed into a science-based (inter)d iscipline. The availability of experimental tools and the rapid develo pment and introduction of computers enabled the application of systems approaches which stimulated a revolution in thinking and caused a con siderable improvement of strategic and tactical decision making in cro p protection. Zadoks played a crucial role in that development.