Author(s)

C. Trozzi

Abstract

Air pollution problems occur at different geographic scales, from a local scale, i.e. those occurring in the surroundings of isolated sources, to a global scale (global warming, ozone depletion). In this paper, after a brief introdution in which policy issues and corresponding scales of air pollution phenomena are summarized, the international protocols and conventions and the European Union legislation are briefly reviewed. Subsequently the main definitions on the emissions inventories are introduced. A short discussion on the classification of the activities of the inventories and on their scale spaces introduces the new requirements of the realization activity. The paper then discusses these requirements and, particularly, emission factor determination regarding volatile organic compounds, particles and heavy metals, the preparation of emissions data for air quality models and the corresponding activities of spatial and temporal allocation, the determination and evaluation of the uncertainty in emission estimates. Finally a list of priority goals in the emissions inventories area are proposed. 1 Introduction Air pollution problems are relevant at different geographic scales, from the local scale, i.e. those occurring in the surroundings of isolated sources, to global scale (global warming, ozone depletion). In Figure 1 a possible summary of policy issues related to the atmospheric environment and corresponding geographical scales of phenomena is described [1], [2]. In all these situations a crucial role is played by the emissions inventories. In the following chapters, after a short review of the international protocols, conventions and of the European Union legislation, the main characteristics about the emissions inventories and the priorities in the research activity for their development are discussed.

Keywords