“Fate and transport analysis is defined as the study of how chemicals degrade and where chemicals travel in the environment when they are released intentionally or unintentionally. This analysis is currently used in the United States to determine pesticide and herbicide residues, industrial process vapors and car exhaust emissions released to the environment.

Fate and transport analysis is a holistic way of looking at chemicals in the environment and involves a modeling system that indicates not only how a chemical moves through the air, water and soil (transport) but also how the chemical changes in the presence of other chemicals and particles (fate). This modeling system is often coupled with sensing and collection systems to find chemical residues left in the environment.” (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 2019)

While the focus of the method is clearly on chemicals, the aspect of considering the fate of materials, included in the method as what from a different perspective could be seen as environmental impact assessment, has merit. However, the application of this method for a city study is rare, but does exist. For example, Boehme et al. (2009) made use of it, in combination with SFA, MFA and LCA, to track contaminants in the New York/New Jersey Harbour.