Unified Transport Model for Organics

The Unified Transport Model UTM-TOX is a computer simulation model funded by the USEPA at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop transport capabilities for new chemicals and pesticides that are organic in nature. This model combines atmospheric transport with hydrologic transport and couples sediment transport, plant growth models, and biodegradation within one unified package. It is an outgrowth of an original study [1] sponsored by NSF which was concerned with the transport of trace heavy metal ions. As a part of that development of the Unified Transport Model, the atmospheric model and the hydrologic transport model were coupled in order to study the concentrations of trace heavy metal ions from deposition on the vegetation through the soil profile into the stream channel. The current model builds heavily on this initial model. The present additions to the model are, in fact, logical extensions of those capabilities that already existed within the model.