MY THINKING

by M. RAMACHANDRAN
(INDIA)

Why do you model for air quality?? What is important and what models do you use?

Barry's Response - The most popular choice for a long time was ISC3 or ISCPrime. This simple model allowed us to take emissions from one or more stacks, downwashed by buildings as appropriate and determine how it would scatter about the surrounding hillsides. RTDM would do similar calculations for steep hills and mountains.

Now we use CALPUFF,
which, essentially, does it all.

One previous commentator said "Superb post" and nothing more. To that I responded with ...

I see. I do wonder what your air dispersion modelling experiences include. Are you familiar with CALPUFF or any of the other models mentioned? Do they have any unique features you would like to bring to light as well?

The point of both of these short conversations is that the model you choose for a particular project depends on a number of factors. One group is the technical criteria pertaining to the project and its prevailing conditions; this includes the clients corporation and their experience with these matters in the local and other jurisdictions.

The second main group is the modellers experiences, preferences and resources as well as his corporate environment if applicable. A third set of criteria comes from the regulatory environment itself and the dynamic standards and protocols contained within.

The criteria pertaining to all three of these groups are changing all the time. Bob Dylan was right.

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