A fundamental output of the NanoFASE water–soil–organism (WSO) model is the spatiotemporal distribution of nanomaterials (NM) across multiple environmental compartments, making it distinct from lower-tier screening level models, such as SimpleBox4nano, which often give average NM concentrations at steady state.

This makes the NanoFASE WSO model useful for such tasks as identifying accumulation hotspots and studying the temporal dynamics of NM concentrations.

 

 

 

Spatial resolution lets us study potential accumulation hotspots, such as downstream from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).

Temporal resolution lets us look at trends over time, such as seasonal variance in riverine NM concentrations, or long-term dynamics of environmental compartments which act as a sink.

To achieve this, the NanoFASE WSO model splits a geographical region (e.g. a river catchment) into grid cells and the model runs over a set period in time. The default grid size is 5x5 km and time step length is 1 day, but these can be altered. Furthermore, the model has the ability to split rivers and estuaries within grid cells into multiple reaches, useful in giving better spatial resolution and accuracy near point sources (e.g. WWTPs).                                 

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Read also

Harrison et al nano fase_spatiotemp_thames_setac 2019

 

Contact

Sam Harrison

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH)