  A description of low-energy scattering of pions and nuclei within a BUU
transport model is presented. Implementing different scenarios of medium
modifications, the mean free path of pions in nuclear matter at low momenta and
pion absorption reactions on nuclei have been studied and compared to data and
to results obtained via quantum mechanical scattering theory. We show that even
in a regime of a long pionic wave length the semi-classical transport model is
still a reliable framework for pion kinetic energies greater than ~20-30 MeV.
Results are presented on pion-absorption cross sections in the regime of 10 MeV
< E(kin) < 130 MeV and on photon-induced double-pion production at incident
beam energies of 400-500 MeV.
