oa Developing Air Pollutant Emission Inventories For Use In Atmospheric Transport Models

Emissions of air pollutants into the ambient environment are at the origin of atmospheric composition changes. Inventories provide important information with respect to the relation between these emissions and activities, both natural and anthropogenic. These inventories are developed for use in transport models that are being applied to estimate the impact of emissions to the atmosphere. Both, emission inventories and air quality models are especially useful to policy-makers whose decisions on future strategies are often based on emission abatement measures. Important to realize is that models can only be as reliable as the emission inventories they use. Air quality assessment regulations therefore necessitate the compilation of complete, accurate, and accessible emission databases worldwide, in Qatar in particular. In general, two methods can be used to provide emission estimates for air pollutants. Either emissions are inventoried using a bottom-up approach, either using a top-down approach. The most accurate and useful inventory in terms of air quality modelling is a so called integrated inventory that combines both methodologies, in a sensible way. VITO built up a lot of expertise in integrated assessment of emissions, which resulted in the development of a GIS based tool, E-MAP [1]. E-MAP allows to compile high resolution emission inventories based on an approach combining top-down and bottom-up techniques, schematically shown in Figure 1. The top-down approach starts from existing inventories at global or continental level and applies downscaling techniques based on geostatistical proxy data, such as land use maps, population maps, road networks, etc. Bottom-up emissions are usually being compiled in close collaboration with local data providers. The E-MAP tool combines the resulting sub-inventories in a consistent manner with respect to source categories, time window, spatial extent and temporal and spatial resolution and patterns. The integrated methodology, initially developed for Europe with special focus on Belgium, has already been applied worldwide, including in regions with sparse data or limited access to data (e.g. China [2] and South Africa [3]). Moreover, a feasibility study on the application of the integrated methodology for estimating emissions in Qatar already has been performed, as revealed by Figure 2. Based on the EDGAR global emission inventory [4] and on open source geostatistical data (road map, population density map) a top-down high resolution emission-map for road transport emissions was compiled. A research initiative to improve the top-down methodology based on detailed local data on one hand and to compile a bottom-up inventory for key categories on the other hand, already has been initiated. In this contribution, the integrated approach to compile emission inventories will be illustrated through different applications worldwide. Special focus will be on the research initiative to compile a complete high resolution emission inventory for use in atmospheric transport models for Qatar. [1] J. Maes et al., Atmospheric Environment 43, 1246-1254 (2009) [2] http://www.amfic.eu/ (2007-2009) and http://www.marcopolo-panda.eu/ (2014-2017) [3] http://www.globemission.eu/ (2012-2016) [4] http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/