701-1240-00L  Modelling Environmental Pollutants

SemesterSpring Semester 2021
LecturersM. Scheringer, C. Bogdal
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish


AbstractModeling the emissions, transport, partitioning and transformation/degradation of chemical contaminants in air, water and soil.
ObjectiveThis course is intended for students who are interested in the environmental fate and transport of volatile and semi-volatile organic chemicals and exposure to pollutants in environmental media including air, water, soil and biota. The course focuses on the theory and application of mass-balance models of environmental pollutants. These models are quantitative tools for describing, understanding, and predicting the way pollutants interact with the environment. Important topics include thermodynamic and kinetic descriptions of chemical behavior in environmental systems; mechanisms of chemical degradation in air and other media; novel approaches to modeling chemical fate in a variety of environments, including lakes and rivers, generic regions, and at the global scale, and application of mass balance modeling principles to describe bioaccumulation of pollutants by fish and mammals.
ContentApplication of mass balance principles to chemicals in a system of coupled environmental media. Measurement and estimation of physico-chemical properties that determine the environmental behavior of chemicals. Thermodynamic and kinetic controls on the behavior of pollutants. Modeling environmental persistence, bioaccumulation and long-range transport potential of chemicals, including a review of available empirical data on various degradation processes. Current issues in multimedia contaminant fate modeling and a case study of the student's choice.
Lecture notesMaterial to support the lectures will be distributed during the course.
LiteratureThere is no required text. The following texts are useful for background reading and additional information.
D. Mackay. Multimedia Environmental Models: The Fugacity Approach, 2nd Ed. 2001. CRC Press.
R. P. Schwarzenbach, P. M. Gschwend, D. M. Imboden. Environmental Organic Chemistry. 2nd Ed. 2003, John Wiley & Sons.
M. Scheringer. Persistence and spatial range of environmental chemicals: New ethical and scientific concepts for risk assessment. 2002. Wiley-VCH.