| Prediction of waste from fish cages is an important tool in the assessment of environmental impacts and environmental sustainability for aquaculture. Many of these tools have been developed in the past and are used for environmental regulation on a regular basis. However, many of the regulatory models are difficult to use and are inflexible in the sense that they are only useful for single site near-field application. A model for particulate waste dispersal has been developed over a number of years within the GISAP group. The aim of this was integration within a GIS framework to enhance flexibility and enable wider application (see: Telfer 1996, Perez et al 2001, Corner et al 2006). As part of this ongoing process a very flexible version of the model was developed in 2007 within a spreadsheet framework and this included preliminary integration of land run-off nutrient models for integration within a GIS. The calculation and modelling is done within the spreadsheet and final presentation of modelling outputs done with GIS. Early validation and sensitivity analysis suggests that this model is more accurate than previous versions.
This project aims to validate this model extensively by undertaking validation and sensitivity analysis on a wide range of existing and field collected data. In addition, its inclusion within the GIS framework will be investigated further for use alongside other spatial modelling such as land run off models.
It is likely that the findings of this research project, combined with that of previous research will be submitted for publication. | 
