Selected Mathematical Models in Environmental Impact Assessment in Canada

by the federal Minister of the Environment to advise government, industry and universities on ways to improve the scientific, technical and procedural basis for environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Canada. CEARC is currently in the process of establishing research programmes related to improving the practice of environmental assessment. The Council has identified the use of mathematical and simulation modelling in EIA as an area of research interest and plans to pursue this topic over the longer term. The purpose of commissioning this paper, and indeed of all the other CEARC-sponsored background documents, is to provide relevant information and to stimulate discussion on the topics of interest to the EIA community. The opinions expressed, however, are strictly the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the members of the Council or its Secretariat.PREFACE The mandate of this study was to review mathematical models used in the evaluation and prediction of environmental impacts due to new projects. The review includes a description of current models, the nature of their utilization and the existence of validation (and/or) verification steps. The information contained in this report is the result of two months of visits and inquiries. Due to this limited amount of time and budgetary constraints, most of the information relates to activities taking place in central Canada. The literature is voluminous on the subject and we only certain references which are cited in the text. have kept We tried to meet, as far as possible, people writing impact assessment reports (consulting firms) and people working on more sophisticated models (research agencies). Appendix A gives a list of people met. Only a few visits were made to university researchers, due to time constraints. The utilization of mathematical models is well spread for environmental applications, and their classification is not obvious. We shall present these models in the following order: l air dispersion, l hydrology and hydrodynamics, l water quality, l ground water quality, l erosion and sedimentation, l oil slick and liquefied natural gas (LNG) spill, l risk and pathways analysis, and l biotic models. It should be noted that some models incorporate more than one of these classifications. We describe the utilization of models by consulting firms involved in environmental impact assessments in each of these fields. Frequency of citation of particular consulting groups is not intended to be any form of endorsement. Rather, it is a reflection of the …