THE NEXT-GENERATION OF INTEGRATED AIR-QUALITY MODELING - EPAS MODELS-3

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing a third-generat ion modeling system, termed Models-3. This paper provides an overview of the concepts behind this effort. The modeling challenge is large an d is addressed at two main user groups, regulatory analysts and scient ists. New technology and tools from the federal High Performance Compu ting and Communications Program present an opportunity to effectively address computational constraints and the modeling challenge, simultan eously. Two goals of the Advanced Air Quality Modeling Project are (1) provide an effective decision support system and (2) provide a framew ork to support the evolvement of models and modeling systems. The info rmation needed for a decision support system is described and its elem ents are defined. The need to be able to significantly evolve the air quality models is discussed next, followed by the presentation of a ge neral software approach for avoiding modeling system obsolescence, In the final section, key modeling considerations and target capabilities are outlined to show the directions being undertaken to initiate Mode ls-3. Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd