Review of requirements for air quality simulation models

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Lantz, R. B.
  • Davison, D. S.

• Air quality models have long been recognized as a valuable tool for the proper management of the air resources of a region. In view of the high costs involved in adapting and operating air quality models, management of the Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Research Program (AOSERP) considered it advisable to update the user survey carried out in February 1977 (Padro 1977) to ensure that selected air quality models would relate to the improved perceptions of model requirements by potential users. The specific objectives of the present study were to define and priorize types of air quality problems by a survey of user requirements and to suggest types of air quality simulation models which will meet identified needs. The model selection procedure developed for this study involved application, implementation, and tmportance parameters to characterize the model types. The application parameters assigned to each model type reflected how well the model type simulated various levels of physical processes which determined the wind flow and dispersion from an industrial source. The implementation parameters considered the operational requirements for input data, computers, and technical personnel. Importance parameters evaluated the degree to which the various physical processes were important for a particular identified user need. This model selection methodology ensured a systematic consideration of the many factors involved in choosing a recommended model type.

• Date created

  1980

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Oil Sands
  • AOSERP
  • Oil sands
  • Tar Sands
  • Tar sands
  • Air Quality
  • Modelling
  • AOSERP AS 4.2.4
  • Canada, Alberta, Fort McMurray

• Type of Item

  Report

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R30Z5D

• License

  This material is provided under educational reproduction permissions included in Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development's Copyright and Disclosure Statement, see terms at http://www.environment.alberta.ca/copyright.html. This Statement requires the following identification: \"The source of the materials is Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development http://www.environment.gov.ab.ca/. The use of these materials by the end user is done without any affiliation with or endorsement by the Government of Alberta. Reliance upon the end user's use of these materials is at the risk of the end user.