GIS-based atmospheric dispersion modelling Forecasting the pesticide atmospheric spray drift from a vineyard plot to a watershed

A multileveled, low-complexity model for flow field reconstruction and transport of passive scalars within an open-source geographic information system (GIS) is presented. Similitude solutions are used in a nonsymmetric metric for the transport, and the model parameters' identification is based on data assimilation. The approach does not require the solution of any partial differential equations and, therefore, is mesh-free. The model also permits to access the solution in one point without computing the solution over the whole domain. A multilevel algorithm permits to locally add partially available information. The model is coupled with GIS in order to handle both realistic topographies using digital elevation models and a spatial agrometeorological database. Numerical results and georeferenced outputs are illustrating the application of themodel to various configurations over realistic topographies, and it can be used as a functional basis for atmospheric pollution prediction and spatial risk analysis.