The main aim of this thesis is to develop an integrated approach that can be used to evaluate or support policy and management decisions for potentially vulnerable areas in Europe. The EUSES (European System for the Evaluation of Substances) model was selected for this work. The methodology is based in the adaptation of the models contained in EUSES to use more realistic regional environmental data. The thesis aims to extend the current functionality of EUSES by providing users with the means of visualising and understanding the spatial component of the risk associated with a particular substance. The development environment for this approach is the ESRI ArcView GIS software and associated modules. EUSES was reimplemented in Excel to understand all the equations of the model. In order to understand the drivers of the model, screenings experiments were performed. As a result a set of graphs showing the relationship between the parameter considered and the outputs of the model was produced. A further stage focused on linking EUSES to GIS adding a spatial component. From available datasets the main drivers of the model were extracted. Using ArcView GIS and ArcView Spatial Analyst, these data were overlayed and processed to obtain GIS maps of Europe at different scales. On the basis of the screening experiments, a set of mathematical equations were extrapolated and used to perform new computations to calculate the variation of the regional PECs due to changing in different parameters. These new computations were certificated with EUSES and a very good correspondence was found. These new computations were used in ArcView GIS; as a result a set of GIS maps were created showing potential vulnerable areas at different scales. This approach was also used to perform some scenario analyses useful to assess the impact of changing conditions on PEC values.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:558628 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Verdelocco, Stefania |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=189404 |
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