Advanced Computer Applications: Project History and Examples The following summaries provide a short overview of the major projects conducted by the Advanced Computer Applications group at IIASA , the precursor of ESS-ACA , since 1985. They list the sponsor, duration, project volume, and provide a short description of the main problem and contents.

 Sponsor:  Kontrollstelle fuer Chemiesicherheit, 
           Gift, und Umwelt
 Country:  Switzerland 
  Domain:  Technological Risk Assessment and Management  
Duration:  1994 -- 
  Volume:  ATS 660,000 

Development of an information system for hazardous substances and chemical risk management and communication for the City and Kanton of Basel. The system integrates data bases on enterprises and hazardous chemicals with a local, city scale GIS and offers numerous access, sorting and display mechanisms for risk information, assessment results, and public risk communication.

 Sponsor:  State Institute for Environmental Health (RIVM)
 Country:  The Netherlands 
  Domain:  Technological Risk Assessment and Management 
Duration:  1993 -- 
  Volume:  ATS 3,200,000

A continuation of the original VROM project started in 1986 by the Ministry for Housing, Physical Planning and the Environment. The system is in daily, operational use at RIVM, consulting for VROM.

 Sponsor:  National Water Commission, Queretaro
 Country:  Mexico 
  Domain:  Water Resources Management 
Duration:  1994 
  Volume:  ATS   6,000,000 

A river basin information and management system, based on the EUREKA projects, with an application to Lerma River. The system combines GIS, and an object-oriented data base, a river network editor and scenario manager, and several simulation models, including rainfall-runoff modeling, water resources management, and a stochastic surface water quality model.

 Sponsor:  United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi
 Country:  Kenya  (UN)
  Domain:  State-of-the Environment Reporting 
Duration:  1993 - 1994
  Volume:  ATS   2,530,000

A multi-media information system for state of the Environment Reporting, implemented for the ESCAP (Asia-Pacific) region in collaboration with GRID Bangkok. Based on Agenda 21, the system includes a global/regional GIS numerous data bases on national level indicators, and an expert system for the assessment of issues from Agenda 21.

 Sponsor:  Thames Water International, Reading
 Country:  United Kingdom 
  Domain:  Water Resources Management
Duration:  1992 - 1994 
  Volume:  ATS   4,900,000

A river basin information and management system, developed within the framework of the EUREKA EU-487 project; case study application to the River Thames, England. The system combined GIS, and object-oriented data base, and several simulation models, including ground water and surface water pollution, water resources management, rainfall-runoff modeling, irrigation water demand estimation, and environmental impact assessment for reservoir projects.

 Sponsor:  City of Vienna, Environmental Protection Division (MA 22)
 Country:  Austria 
  Domain:  Urban Air Pollution 
Duration:  1991
  Volume:  ATS   400,000

Implementation of a Gaussian air quality model, based on the EPA ISC model for multiple point- and area sources, with short- and long-term simulation model, integrated GIS and emission data base, and embedded expert system for the estimation of unmeasured emissions.

The model also installed, in a parallel project, in the City of Ostrava, Czech Republic.

 Sponsor:  Swedish Board of Agriculture 
 Country:  Sweden 
  Domain:  Water Quality Management
Duration:  1991 
  Volume:  ATS   380,000

National level GIS and agricultural data base with an expert system for the assessment of water quality impacts of agricultural policy. Demonstration system.

 Sponsor:  Regional Environmental Institute, Usti
 Country:  Czechoslovakia
  Domain:  Air Pollution Management 
Duration:  1991 
  Volume:  ATS   2,200,000

Development of regional and local air quality management model system, including a GIS, short- and long-term Gaussian simulation model, a three layer dynamic FE model, and an optimization component for the design of pollution control strategies. The air pollution models include an embedded expert systems for the estimation of emissions.

 Sponsor:  Delft Hydraulics
 Country:  The Netherlands 
  Domain:  Coastal Water Quality Management
Duration:  1991
  Volume:  ATS   500,000

Implementation of two models (2D vertically integrated coastal hydrodynamics and a particle tracking water quality model) developed by Delft Hydraulics, for the analysis of coastal pollution from waste outfalls in a case study of Swansea Bay.

 Sponsor:  Austrian Research Foundation,
           Nationalbankstiftung
 Country:  Austria
  Domain:  Artificial Intelligence, Operations Research 
Duration:  1989 - 1992 
  Volume:  ATS    1,473,000

Several basic research projects in the area of applied artificial intelligence (automatic learning) and multi-criteria decision support for discrete alternatives, and economic extensions to the rule-based EIA expert system.

 Sponsor:  Mekong Secretariat, Bangkok
 Country:  Thailand
  Domain:  Environmental Impact Assessment
Duration:  1989 - 1990 
  Volume:  ATS    2,625,000

A rule-based expert system coupled to GIS and data bases, for screening level environmental impact assessment (EIA), based on the Asian Development Bank Environmental Guidelines Series for water resources development projects.

 Sponsor:  Dutch Railways, VROM
 Country:  The Netherlands 
  Domain:  Transportation Noise Management 
Duration:  1989 - 1990 
  Volume:  ATS  1,615,000

GIS based mapping of railway noise, railway noise data base.

 Sponsor:  City of Hanover, Umweltamt
 Country:  Germany 
  Domain:  Urban Environmental Management 
Duration:  1988 - 1990
  Volume:  ATS   2,980,000

Design and prototype implementation of a modular urban environmental information system as a framework for numerous models and data bases. The prototype included a basic GIS, a data base on enterprises and potentially contaminated sites, and a dynamic 2D finite-element groundwater flow and transport model, developed by the University of Hanover.

 Sponsor:  National Transportation Safety Institute, Paris
 Country:  France 
  Domain:  Transportation Risk Assessment
Duration:  1988 - 1989
  Volume:  ATS   600,000

Development of a GIS based transportation risk assessment and optimization model for the region of Haute Normandie, including a detailed graph-based road characteristics data base.

 Sponsor:  SANDOZ AG, Basel
 Country:  Switzerland
  Domain:  Industrial Risk Assessment 
Duration:  1988
  Volume:  ATS   400,000

Development of a process-plant and city scale system of models (Gaussian, dynamic finite elements) for heavy gas dispersion modeling, coupled to a hierarchical GIS for plant and city scales, and a chemicals inventory data base. Demonstration prototype level.

 Sponsor:  Bureau of Reclamation, Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)
 Country:  USA
  Domain:  Water Pollution Control
Duration:  1987 - 1990
  Volume:  ATS  3,952,000

Interactive modeling systems for surface and groundwater pollution control, including multi-criteria decision support components; developed in close collaboration with the University of Boulder, Colorado.

 Sponsor:  State Science and Technology Commission, Beijing
 Country:  People's Republic of China 
  Domain:  Regional Development Planning, Resource Management 
Duration:  1985 - 1987 
  Volume:  ATS 4,824,000 

An integrated decision support system for regional development planning on a five-year plan scale, implemented for Shanxi Province, PRC. The system combined several data bases on socio-economic topics and indicators with a number of simulation and optimization models, including water resources, mining, pollution control, industrial production optimization, input-output modeling, transportation planning, etc, in a rule-based expert systems framework.

 Sponsor:  Ministry for Housing, Physical Planning and the
           Environment (VROM)
 Country:  The Netherlands
  Domain:  Technological Risk Assessment and Management
Duration:  1986 - 1993
  Volume:  ATS 19,230,000 

Project involved several generations of risk assessment software in support of the EC's Post Seveso Directive. Includes a GIS with land use and political information, population, and risk objects; data bases on hazardous installations, chemicals; and models for surface water quality, air pollution, and transportation risk assessment. As of 1993, the project is being continued under sponsorship from RIVM, State Institute for Public and Environmental Health.

 Sponsor:  Joint Research Centre of the CEC, Ispra
 Country:  Italy 
  Domain:  Technological Risk Assessment, Hazardous Substances 
Duration:  1985 - 1987 
  Volume:  ATS 4,450,000 

An information system to support the EEC Post-Seveso Directive on Hazardous Industrial Installations; integrates data bases on industries, chemicals, and waste streams with assessment model for air, surface, and groundwater, a transportation risk analysis module, and a process plant simulator. European scale.