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Advanced environmental fate modelling
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:29:27
Abstract
Modeling the emissions, transport and partitioning of chemical contaminants in air, water and soil.
Objective
This course is intended for students who are interested in the atmospheric fate and transport of volatile and semivolatile organic chemicals and its link to exposure in water, soil and other media. The course focuses on the theory and application of mass-balance models for describing partitioning between different media, degradation, and long-range transport. Specific topics include thermodynamic and kinetic descriptions of interactions of chemicals with environmental matrices; mechanisms of chemical degradation in air and other media; novel approaches to modeling chemical fate in a variety of environments, including ice/snow, mountainous regions, vegetation, and arid regions. Students will have the opportunity to conduct an individual project focusing on a chemical and/or environmental scenarios of their choice.
Content
Chemical pollution and mass balance principles. Measurement and estimation of physico-chemical properties that determine the environmental behavior of chemicals. Thermodynamic and kinetic controls on the behavior of pollutants. Modeling environmental persistence, bioaccumulation and long-range transport potential of chemicals. Current issues in multimedia contaminant fate modeling and a case study of the student's choice.
Resources
Lecture Notes
Lecture notes and supporting material will be distributed during the course.
Literature
There is no required text. The following texts are useful for background reading and additional information. D. Mackay. Multimedia Environmental Models: The Fugacity Approach, 2nd Ed. 2001. CRC Press. M. Scheringer. Persistence and spatial range of environmental chemicals: New ethical and scientific concepts for risk assessment. 2002. Wiley-VCH.
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- MSC
- Frequency
- Yearly recurring
Examination
- Type
- session examination
- Mode
- oral 30 minutes
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| lecture | Advanced environmental fate modelling |
|
2 h weekly |
Offered In
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Electives (The students are free to choose individually from the entire course offer of ETH Zürich and the universities of Zürich and Bern.)
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