During the years 2004-2009, the NoMiracle research project funded within the 6th Framework Programme of the European Union has promoted the development, discussion and dissemination of novel methods for environmental and human health risk assessment. Among the several tools developed therein, A.Pistocchi, (2007; 2008) proposed a new approach, named MAPPE after Multimedia Assessment of Pollutant Pathways in the Environment, to assessing the fate and transport of contaminants over large regions using simplified, GIS-based spatially explicit models.

Alberto Pistocchi was then working at the European Commission JRC in Ispra, where he was task leader for the activities of multimedia organic chemical fate and transport modeling at the European scale, within the broader FATE activities. MAPPE became a specific ArcGIS extension, that he developed for the JRC where it is still operational for assessment and policy support. However, the MAPPE approach can be implemented in any GIS package having sufficient analytical capabilities for grids, including several free and open-source GIS packages. The true core of the approach is in simplified algorithms to describe fate and transport processes, which exploit GIS data on emissions, landscape and climate variables while keeping calculations quick and simple. In more recent times, the MAPPE approach has been generalized to the global scale so to enable a comprehensive, yet computationally quick and simple, description of the long range transport and global distribution of persistent organic contaminants.

Although more complex models may be needed for specific assessment, including detailed simulation of certain processes, the MAPPE approach lends itself to a broad range of applications and can be recommended in several fields such as:

- Interpretation of national and international monitoring data: check of the consistency between measured concentrations and estimated emissions of contaminants;

- Identification of priority pollutants following provisions such as the ones of the European Water framework directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC, and the Pesticide directives.

- Assessment of the fate of industrial chemicals in the different phases of their life cycle, also in relationship with the REACH obligations

- Cumulative ecological and human risk assessment

- Life cycle impact assessment.

Scientists at GECOsistema boast a broad experience in chemical fate modeling with GIS and develop both research and industrial projects related to chemical assessment.

For further information contact: alberto.pistocchi@gecosistema.it.