A GIS-based approach for modeling the fate and transport of pollutants in Europe

This paper presents an approach to estimate chemical concentration in multiple environmental media (soil, water, and the atmosphere) with the sole use of basic geographical information system (GIS) operations and, particularly, map algebra. This allows solving mass balance equations in a different way from the traditional methods involving numerical or analytical solution of systems of equations, producing maps of chemical fluxes and concentrations only through combinations of maps of emissions and environmental removal or transfer rates. Benchmarking with the well-established EMEP MSCE-POP model shows that the method provides consistent results with this more detailed description. When available, experimental evidence equally supports the proposed method in relation to the more complex approaches.