"Exposure assessment modelling in river basins in Japan" 

Yuriko Ishikawa¹, Akihiro Toukai¹, Tomoya Kawaguchi², Mituo Shirahama²

¹National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology     
²NIHON SUIDO CONSULTANTS CO., LTD.

Society for Risk Analysis 2005 Annual Meeting (Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. 2005/12/6)

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Abstract

In September 2004, the research center for Chemical Risk Management (CRM) of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed a software tool for chemical risk assessment in river basins and evaluation of emission reduction measures, named “AIST-Standardized Hydrology-based AssessmeNt tool for chemical Exposure Load (AIST- SHANEL)”. This tool is used to estimate the chemical exposure concentrations in a water system with spatial resolution of 1×1 km mesh and everyday as time resolution by simple data inputting, requiring only PRTR release data, river basin information, and data on the basic physical properties of the chemical substances of interest. A variety of information can be easily grasped from calculations with this tool, including the location of high release areas within the river basin, the correspondence between the exposure load and areas with high releases, and the relationship between river flow rates and loads. It is also possible to evaluate ecological risk by obtaining the probability that loads will exceed the concentration affecting aquatic organisms, and to estimate the benefit of reducing chemical releases from factories and improving the removal rate in wastewater treatment plants in reducing chemical loads. 

Keywords

watershed model, chemical risk assessment, chemical risk management, exposure concentration, river flow, chemical emission, PRTR data