MODISAFE – CBRN modelling of sources and agent fate

MODISAFE is an international collaborative research project running since 2022 and focused on key aspects of atmospheric dispersion of hazardous substances:  evaporation, deposition and urban dispersion. The project brings together research organisations from across Europe, including the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), the French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA), the GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the French Institut national de l’environnement industriel et des risques (Ineris) and the University of Surrey, UK.

The overall aim of the project is to improve understanding of source characteristics, loss processes and agent fate. Knowledge gaps around atmospheric dispersion are addressed, combining theory, modelling and experimental studies. In particular, the knowledge gaps investigated are:

• Evaporation rates of liquid pools and droplets from permeable and impermeable substrates
• Deposition in complex urban environments such as on the ground, buildings and vegetation
• Dispersion of negatively and positively buoyant gases within city-scale environments

MODISAFE will provide high-quality experimental datasets for use in model validation, thus supporting the tools used for predicting releases of hazardous substances and improving public safety.

Work Package Summaries

Each of the key aspects investigated were captured in separate work packages. The main work package lead, modelling contributors and experimental lead for the different work packages were:

	WP lead	Modelling contributors	Experimental lead
WP10 – Evaporation	FOI	FOI, HSE, DGA, FFI	Ineris
WP20 – Deposition	DGA	DGA, FOI, HSE	HSE
WP30 – Buoyant sources	FFI	FFI, DGA	University of Surrey
WP40 – Dissemination	HSE	–	–

Publications and Dissemination

Conferences:

HARMO 22 (2024, Pärnu Estonia):

• Overview of content and ongoing experimental work in the international collaboration initiative MODISAFE

HARMO 23 (2025, Hamburg Germany):

• MODISAFE – Project Overview
• WP10 – Modelling of evaporation from porous and non-porous substrates
• WP20 – Modelling of Dry Gas Deposition
• WP30 – Experimental Study of Urban Dispersion of Buoyant Gasses
• WP30 – Modelling of urban dispersion of buoyant gases

Publications:

This section will be updated in due course.

Datasets:

This section will be updated in due course.