Air quality	Meteorology	Water resources	Coastal marine	Risk management
Industry, ISO 14001	Impact assessment	Land use	Embedded GIS	Urban development
Teaching and training	Multi-criteria DSS	Stakeholders	Data bases	Monitoring

  Air Quality Assessment and Management:

Web-based Real-time modeling: Cyprus, South Korea, Tehran, Sisak, Gulf Real-time web based implementations of the AirWare urban and industrial air quality assessment and management systems are operational for several cities and regions world wide. Based on daily weather forecasts with MM5 (with 3 to 5 days forecast horizon), the range of models for a number of nested domainsd is run every hour. The web based implementation is develop within the framework of the EUREKA project E!3266 WEBAIR. Meteorological forecasts, dynamic emission modelling, several air quality models (CAMx, AERMOD, PBM, Multi-Puff) including 3D dynamic and nested grid air quality models with photochemistry are integrated in a web based system. Selected case study cities and areas include: Republic of Cyprus and the coastal City of Limassol South Korea, Seoul, Gyeongg-do Greater Tehran Area, Iran, City of Sisak Croatia.

Regulatory modeling: AERMOD City level: As part of AirWare, the advanced USEPA regulatory Gaussian model AERMOD is used for high-resolution hourly scenarios at the city level and below, as well as long-term assessments. A special feature is the use of an AERMOD-based convolution models for very high resolution modeling of line sources. For impact assessment, the model is run on an hourly basis for an entire year, generating indicators such as average and maximum concentrations, but also frequency of violations, and population exposure.

Single point source: Java applet
Steady-state Gaussian models are the most commonly used form of air quality simulation models. To evaluate a single source (industrial point source with an elevated stack), a number of basic equations area available. the example demonstrates the interdependency of meteorological and stack parameters and shows estimated concentrations downwind from a stack.

  Operational weather forecasts: MM5

As dynamic boundary conditions and input for both air quality and coastal water quality models, we use operational weather forecats for up to seven days, based on on global GFS data, downscaled to the regional/local scale of the respective application with three levels of two-way nesting, down to hourly and 1 km resolutions. Meteorological modeling:   this uses the 3D prognostic, non-hydrostatic nested grid meteorological model MM5; experiments with an alternative 3D model, WRF, are under way.

  Water Resources management

The WaterWare water resources management information system integrates a number of dynamic simulation models, which are all web accessible from the OPTIMA project web site with applications around the Mediterranean: RRM is a dynamic rainfall-runoff model at basin scale, designed for the simulation of natural, ungaged basins - its output is one of the inputs to the water resources and allocation model;   WRM is a dynamic basin wide water resources model; STREAM is a dynamic, annual and basin wide distributed water quality model;   SPILL/BLTM describes just that: accidental pollutant spills to rivers, and the irrigation model estimates (daily) irrigation water requirements for several crops and overlapping planting and growing periods, as a pre-processor for the water resources model. For an overview of the latest web-based release, see the release description for the current   Release 6.2 Associated on-line data base include: Irrigated crops River Basins.

  Coastal Water Quality:

For coastal locations including cities, major harbours and industrial activities, coastal water quality for harbour basins and the costal waters is available, based on the ROMS/TOMS (or POM) 3D dynamic flow and transport model system. With a very high vertical resolution in the cm range and corresponding computational time steps of seconds, the system can also handle double diffusive problems such as (warm) brine dispersion. Animation example (mpeg file)

  Risk Analysis: accidental release models

For the analysis of industrial risk scenarios, dynamic models like the multi-puff model INPUFF 2.4 are used. Model results are presented as an animation of individual time step results. The (date) example from the A-TEAM risk training project shows the release of ammonia from a large group of storage containers from a mediumsized chemical production plant in Lower Austria.
Risk Screening: Metodo Speditivo
For the fast, screening level analysis, the Italian "Metodo Speditivo" is linked to a data base of containers and storage units for hazardous materials. Based on substance characteristics, amounts, storage conditions and safety measures as well as the current or prevaling meteorological conditions, the models defines different risk and exposure zones around the source location. The example shows a large container in an industrial plant in the Hamriyah free economic zone in the United Arab Emirates (fictituous data).

 

Industrial Environmental Management: EMAS, ISO 14001

EMIS, the Environmental Management Information System for industries, provides a range of web-based and real-time tools for environmental management and compliance monitoring. EMIS integrates data bases and mogels for industrial environmental management and EIA, following EMAS, ISO14001, or BS1800. EMIS supports hierarchical structures and multiple locations. It is designed for major industries, industrial parks or economic zones, or larger enterprises with multiple locations and production plants or units within a region or country (see, for example: CENVIS, The Netherlands.

 

Environmental Impact Assessment: EIA, ISO 14001, BS7550

EIA, the Environmental Impact ASsessment tool provide a rule-based intelligent checklists and assessment system using expert systems technology to assist in screening level assessment by EIA/SIA standards, various inspection or permitting protocols, or following ISO 14001, EMAS, BS7550 or similar guidelines. The web-based and real-time tool (includes work flow management for several cooperating, distributed users) for screening level assessment is fully data driven and easy to configure and customize. The EIA tols can use any one of the simulation models as part of the assessment procedure, and link to both object data bases and GIS. for the EIA example, try "Reservoir Eutrophication" from the operational problem list.

  Data Bases and information systems

Hazardous Chemicals, MSDS
A part of the industry oriented EMIS environmental management information system for industrial estates and RiskWare, a data base of hazardous chemical provides the physico-chemical and toxicological data for various risk simulation models, EIA, and EMAS/ISO 14001 assessment.
Industrial Waste Streams
Another component of RiskWare and the industry oriented EMIS a data base of industrial waste streams (based on the US RCRA model) provides the physico-chemical and toxicological data for various risk simulation models, EIA, and EMAS/ISO 14001 assessment, as well as inputs for a waste treatment optimization module.
Adriatic Species Catalog
As a part of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management applications (see, for example: SMART: sustainbale management of carce resources in the Coastal Zone, or   SCUBA: scientific diving home pages) we maintain on on-line catalog of Adriatic Marine Species (in collaboration with the University of Split and their SEA-EAS INTERREG project).

Stakeholder participation
These two linked data bases hold information from the Mediterranean projects SMART and OPTIMA, dealing with water resources management in the coastal zone and optimization questions, respectively, on water resources Issues (an interactive questionnaire for case studies and their perceived range of problems), as defined by the local Stakeholders or major actors.

Teaching and training

Technical training is one of the application domains in support of complex, model based decision support tools. For water resources management and multi-criteria DSS, NBI-DSS provides an example of on-line training resources. Urban Ecology, is an example of a post-graduate university level course. The links lead to on-line multiple choice tests that are part of the respective on-line distance learning resources.

  Land use dynamics

Land use change over time is an important driving force for many environmental and resource management issues, and is itself heavily influenced by environmental characteristics. The LUC dynamic Land Use Change model simulate s land use over decades, using transition probabilities and a set of first order production rules, in a combination of a Markov-chain model and a cooperative gaming approach. The model is used, for example in the SMART project for the management of scarce resources in the coastal zone.

  Embedded GIS

Almost all environmental are georeferenced; ESS data bases, models and tools use an embedde GIS functionality to provide spatial data, reference, background, e.g., for most model output display. The Map Server provides a range of functions from map import to map interactive composition, as well as a map catalog that can be used to select an appropriate background map from.

 

City Benchmarking

The example leads to a data base of European Cities and selected environmental indicators, mainly describing traffic and air quality related issues. This was developed as part of the SUTRA (Sustainable Urban Transportation) project. Cities are the main "target" for the AirWare/WEBAIR urban and industrial air quality assessment and management tools. See also: Urban Ecology on-line training resources.

 

Multi-Criteria DSS
A discrete multi-criteria DSS tools, based on the reference point methodology, is available as a post-processor for both the WaterWare Water Resources Optimization model WRM, as well as for the emission control optimization version of the CAMx air quality model.