PFAS are persistent pollutants that threaten ecosystems and human health. In Flanders, industrial activities released PFAS into the environment, yet the processes governing their fate and transport across air, soil and water remain poorly understood. To address this, VITO and Wageningen Research (WR) are joining forces to develop an integrated modelling framework that captures the full environmental pathway of PFAS.

Combined modelling approach

VITO is integrating an atmospheric deposition model with a soil leaching model to simulate how PFAS compounds, each with their distinct physicochemical characteristics, move through the air after being emitted from industrial stacks, deposit onto the soil surface, infiltrate through the unsaturated soil zone and ultimately reach the groundwater. WR is developing improved process descriptions of PFAS sorption in the soil and plant uptake, which will be integrated into the model.  Altogether, the integrated model chain provides a comprehensive view of PFAS contamination dynamics across environmental compartments.

Refining atmospheric deposition modelling

A key innovation in this project is the use of state-of-the-art measuring sites to better determine deposition rates of individual PFAS compounds. These refined parameters significantly reduce uncertainties, enabling a more reliable representation of how PFAS transfer from the atmosphere to the soil. This creates a more realistic representation of the upper boundary conditions for the unsaturated zone models.

Together with the refined process description of PFAS sorption and plant uptake, these improvements will allow the models to better capture the complex interactions between PFAS, soil properties, and vegetation, leading to more reliable understanding of PFAS-behavior over time.

Linking to Ecosystem Services (ES)
Beyond tracking contamination, the combined modeling framework allows to assess the impact of different interventions on ecosystem services. This provides policymakers with actionable insights to prioritise effective mitigation and remediation strategies in PFAS-impacted regions.