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PANGEA

Submitted by Peter Fantke on Mon, 2010-06-28 12:10
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PANGEA is a multi-scale multimedia modelling framework that allows to determine and compare local to global impacts of organic pollutants that undergo a multimedia fate and lead to a multi-pathway exposure of the population. The model core uses a GIS library that allows fast adaptation to specific studies. The purpose of PANGEA is to analyze all relevant impact pathways of different organic contaminants (e.g. persistent organic pollutants, plant protection products) at various spatial scales. The modelling framework is based on a flexible, multi-scale and multi-compartment system for generating multi-scale grids (covering single or a set of environmental media)  according to any user defined criterion with the help of GIS processing. This enables the model to automatically project every available data set onto a flexible grid (i.e. adjacent grid cells may have different extensions) and to solve the underlying numerical equations by means of matrix algebra.

Model description
Purpose: 

The purpose of PANGEA is to analyze all relevant impact pathways of different organic contaminants (e.g. persistent organic pollutants, plant protection products) at various spatial scales. PANGEA provides risk and/or impact assessments (based on intake fractions) in the form of effect and/or characterisation factors (EFs/CFs) and/or concentration/exposure-response relationships for a set of user-defined environmental compartments as well as for human health from direct and indirect exposure via inhalation and ingestion of food products and drinking water based on releases into the environment. All results can be provided for different user-defined spatial scales at monthly or annual averages.

Boundaries: 

Field(s) of model: Multimedia; Exposure; Impact Assessment; Integrated Assessment system; Monetary Valuation

Spatial coverage: Global

Spatial resolution: Flexibly spatially differentiated according to various kinds of underlying differentiation schemes, such as rectangular atmospheric grids, riverine catchments, etc.; note that the grids are multiscale, i.e. the size of the grid cells in each grid may vary

Temporal coverage: May vary from days to centuries depending on scenario

Temporal resolution: Steady-state solution; quasi-dynamic solution (by making use of time archetypes)

Pollutants / Stressors / Agents covered: Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs); Plant protection products; [soon: other organic stressors; heavy metals]

Health effects: Generic cancer and non-cancer effects (taken from LCIA); [soon: dose-response relationships]

Population subgroups considered: Yes, if defined by user

Source types of emissions / sectors: Releases to all environmental media and from all sectors, if defined by user

Input: 

Data type: Monthly or annual averages, often based on more or less detailed background information (different spatial resolutions of input data possible for the same scenario)

Data sources: Various

Data format: Various

Database type: Geodatabase

Output: 

Data type: Point estimates

Data sources: Different modules of the PANGEA framework

Data format: Geodatabase; ASCII files; maps

Description of processes modelled and of technical details: 

Operating System: WINDOWS; [soon: UNIX, LINIX]

Software requirements: MATLAB 2009b or higher; ESRI ArcGIS 9.3.1 or higher; Pyhton 2.6 or higher

Developed by: PANGEA is being developed conjointly by the School of Public Health (SPH), University of Michigan, United States, and the Institute of Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy (IER), University of Stuttgart, Germany