New EPRI Project Will Link AMSTERDAM and WARMF Models
Air quality models, such as the EPRI-funded AMSTERDAM model, and watershed models, such as EPRI’s WARMF, are typically applied independently by different groups to simulate atmospheric pollution and land/water ecosystem impacts, respectively.  The end point of the air models is generally the starting point of the watershed models, but little effort has been made to link them in a rigorous manner.  Linkages would allow researchers to follow the path of pollutants emitted into the air, their transport and transformations in the atmosphere, their deposition to the earth, and their fate in water bodies/watersheds after interactions with other anthropogenic and biogenic matter.  The linked models could be used to evaluate the water quality improvement that would result from the reduction of specific air emissions from specific power plants—a capability that does not currently exist.  Therefore, EPRI has undertaken a new Technology Innovation (TI) project to develop an interface between AMSTERDAM and WARMF.  Design of the interface will address the following issues:

• specification of the spatial domain and time period for testing the interface
• spatial scale and projection conversions
• temporal resolution
• file format specifications
• mapping of chemical species from AMSTERDAM to WARMF
• mapping of meteorological model results used in AMSTERDAM for use in WARMF
• deposition and air concentration results from AMSTERDAM for use in WARMF

The design, coding, testing, and documentation of the interface is expected to be complete by the end of 2008.  For more information, contact Eladio Knipping, (650) 855-2592, eknippin@epri.com, or Robert Goldstein, (650) 855-2593, rogoldst@epri.com.