Predicting Fate-Related Physicochemical Properties

The environmental fate of chemical substances is determined by partitioning between environmental compartments, and by transport and degradation processes. In this context, long range transport potential and persistence are important characteristics of the compound behaviour [1-7]. Besides specialized models to address the compound fate in individual environmental compartments, multimedia fate models have become popular in exposure and fate assessment on global and regional scales. A main application of such models is the screening-level prediction of the fate of environmental chemicals under standardized emission scenarios, and more recently the focus has shifted to more detailed process descriptions including time-dependent concentration levels of compounds and consideration of spatial resolution.