Next Generation Environmental Models and Computational Methods

Book excerpt: 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.