ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENTAL-IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELING IN FRANCE

The most widely accepted model of atmospheric dispersion for impact as sessment in France is the Gaussian model of Doury. The Centre d'Etudes Atomiques (CEA) and Electricite de France (EDF) have developed their own software systems, which include several compatible or nested meteo rological, trajectory, and dispersion codes. These systems are fitted to the various atmospheric scales from regional to local, and to the p roblem under study for real-time monitoring of risk or damage assessme nt. Recently, several recognized institutions and private groups have equipped themselves with codes either derived from Doury's (1976) or E DF's models, or imported from foreign research groups. These developme nts essentially concern user interfaces and system implementations. Se veral studies have adapted computational fluid dynamics codes to compu te the local wind fields in impact studies and dispersion assessment, especially at very small scales. The GdR SUB-MESO (Groupement de Reche rches Atmosphere Urbaine Submesoechelle) is a co-operative effort of e leven institutions to develop a communal code for 'reference' studies of the dynamics, physics, dispersion and chemical transformations in t he atmospheric boundary layer over complex terrain in urban areas, at scales from a few tens of metres to a few tens of kilometres.