Next Generation Environmental Models and Computational Methods

This text explores how new algorithmic methods would benefit the US EPA's environmental models and other environmental studies. The main theme is that better environmental models need to include more realistic physical processes and require an increase in computational complexity and power.

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Large-scale changes are taking place in the way modelling is performed within the US EPA, and a new generation of environmental models is currently under construction. The US EPA is engaging in several modelling efforts in response to Congressional mandates such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. These mandates require the scientific modelling of the impact of pollutants on human health and the environment. The complexity of scale in environmental models has increased by several orders of magnitude, with a simultaneous demand for increased stability, accuracy and efficiency in the computed model solution. This book showcases numerical algorithms appropriate to the subject areas listed below and explores how new algorithmic methods would benefit the US EPA's environmental models and other environmental studies. The overriding theme is that better environmental models need to include more realistic physical processes and this in turn requires a large increase in computational complexity and computational power.
Computational algorithms in scientific models are surveyed in subject areas such as global and regional circulation models, air quality modelling, aquatic systems, water quality modelling, groundwater transport of contaminants, and inverse problem methods for the environment.