- Docente: Giacomo Antonioni
- Credits: 9
- SSD: ICHI-01/C
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Environmental Engineering (cod. 6722)
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from Sep 17, 2026 to Dec 18, 2026
Learning outcomes
The course aims to provide the modeling tools, from the simplest to the most complex, used in the professional/industrial field, for the evaluation of the fate and transport of pollutants, generated by different anthropogenic activities, in the different environmental media and of their cross-media effects, useful to integrate the authorization procedures for production activities or in any case useful to estimate the quality status of the different environmental media.
Course contents
Introduction to forecasting models for environmental impact, physical phenomena involved, and basic equations.
Transport phenomena (advection, diffusion, dispersion, etc.) and chemical reactions (kinetic and equilibrium).
Forecasting models for air contamination. Air and pollution phenomena: the advection-dispersion equation. Meteorology overview. The Gaussian dispersion model, dry and wet deposition phenomena, air-water and air-soil interfacial processes.
Contents and use of a specific software: AERMOD.
Water and pollution phenomena. Toxic organic substances in lakes, rivers, and estuaries. Redox reactions, heavy metals, and their migration in soil. Overview of a simple model: Streeter–Phelps.
Introduction to soil contamination.
Introduction to ecotoxicology: methodology for estimating environmental and human health risks (EHHRA).
Readings/Bibliography
J.L. Schnoor, Environmental Modeling, John Wiley & Sons, NY, 1996.
Teaching methods
Classroom lectures and ongoing exercises in the computer room. Exercises lasting 2-3 hours each are planned to familiarize students with the tools and solve problems with the teacher's guidance, and then to complete assigned problems as much independently as possible.
Assessment methods
An open-book practical exam using calculator, in which students will be required to independently solve an assigned exercise using software tools, and an oral exam.
The oral exam must be taken in the same session as the practical one.
Teaching tools
Copy of slides presented in class.
Sample input files for the various software used.
Dedicated space on the virtuale.unibo.it platform.
Office hours
See the website of Giacomo Antonioni
SDGs
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.