Environmental software conference report: Workshop on operational short-range atmospheric dispersion models for environmental impact assessment in Europe, Mol, Belgium, 21–24 November 1994

Abstract This conference report deals with the recent evolution in Europe with respect to the evaluation and validation of Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion (ATD) models for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The important aspects of model verification were, until recently, a matter of concern only for individual scientists or research groups. The Initiative on Harmonisation of ATD Models for Regulatory Use in Europe, that resulted till now in three workshops, made clear that the comparison of the output of a particular model with measurements as well as with other model results can be carried out by the community of model developers and users -from industry as well as government- world-wide, using the same data sets of experimental data and statistical techniques for all models. The workshops themselves have become a much appreciated meeting place for the developers and users of operational ATD models.