Geography-referenced Regional Exposure Assessment Tool for European Rivers 
GREAT-ER 1.0
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About
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GREAT-ER 1.0 was the result of a research project (1996-1999) to develop 

    * A model for environmental risk assessment and management of chemicals in
      river basins.

    * A higher tier support system designed for use at a post-screening 
      level in the EU Risk Assessment process, and in the EU Water Framework 
      Directive.

    * A software system that combines a GIS (Geographic Information System) 
      with fate models to produce a simple and clear visualisation of 
      predicted chemical concentrations and water quality along a river.

    * A tool to study the impact of chemicals emitted by point sources 
      into rivers: GREAT-ER allows to calculate GIS-based equivalents of 
      'PEClocal' and 'PECregional' for the aquatic environment.

The GREAT-ER 1.0 development was funded by the Environmental Risk Assessment
Steering Committee (ERASM) of the Association Internationale de la Savonnerie,
de la Détergence et des Produits d'Entretien (A.I.S.E.) and the Comité Européen
des Agents de Surface et Intermédiares Organiques (CESIO), in cooperation with
the UK Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water. The project was managed by a
task force of the European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of 
Chemicals (ECETOC) 

GREAT-ER 1.0 has been developed and assisted by an extensive monitoring
programme by the following partners:

    o Institute of Hydrology, NERC,
    o University of Osnabrck, Institute for Environmental Systems Research,
    o University of Ghent, Department Biomath,
    o University of Milan, Departments of Agricultural Engineering and 
      of Hydrology, and
    o the UK Environment Agency, North-East Region.

While the software has been distributed for gratis since 1999 the copyright
holder (ERASM) has made the decision to release it as Free Software in 2003.

The intention of the release was to illustrate the concept and implementation 
of user interface and model based on a sound licence in line with GREAT-ER II,
the successor of GREAT-ER 1.0. 

GREAT-ER 1.0 requires ESRI ArcView 3.0 and MicroSoft Windows NT 4.0.

Details and information on progress and related projects can be found at the 
GREAT-ER web site: 

	http://www.great-er.org


License
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It must be noted that GREAT-ER is a research tool for scientific purposes.
There is no warranty for the program, to the extend permitted by applicable
law. In particular the copyright holders and/or other parties related to the
software development are not responsible for the interpretation of results
produced by GREAT-ER and are not liable for any incidental or 
consequential damages arising on decisions based on the results
produced by GREAT-ER. 

GREAT-ER 1.0 is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
(GPL), see the file COPYING for details.
