CAMHIE

The Computer Assisted Modelling of HAZMAT Incident Emissions, (CAMHIE) (, like the French girls' name Camille) is a catastrophe modeling software package for the modelling of the dispersion pattern - the so called 'footprint' - of gasses which have been released during a hazardous materials incident.

Background
CAMHIE has been developed as a joint effort by CEMAC (Crisis & Emergency Management Centre, Belgium) and the BIOMATH department of Ghent University (Belgium) as requested by the Belgian Ministry of the Interior.

The CAMHIE software is different from virtually all the other dispersion modelling software in that the initial calculated footprint - which is a mathematical prediction - is validated and if necessary corrected by the input from measurement by field teams which are sent out to measure gas concentration near the boundaries of one of the dispersion plumes.

As such, the software permits one or more re-iterations whereby initial estimates are corrected and/or the dispersion plume can be modelled throughout its transit through the atmosphere. CAMHIE permits the use of Geographical Information System-layers or the export of the results to a Geographical Information System and thus offers real time decision support to crisis management teams and emergency services, by displaying and calculating threatened areas, totals of exposed populations, etc.