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FAIRMODE - Forum for Air Quality Modeling

FAIRMODE brings together air quality modelers and users to promote and support the harmonized use of models by EU Member States to support the European Air Quality Directives.

Emissions benchmarking tool

The "FAIRMODE Emission Benchmarking Tool" is an IDL-based software developed by JRC in close cooperation with NILU and BSC as co-chairs of the FAIRMODE activities under WG2.

  • Page | Last updated: 20 Oct 2025
FAIRMODE Forum for Air Quality Modelling

Current benchmarking

The current benchmarking activities (in 2025) are done using the tool available here (website accessible with EU login). 

Below we describe the work that was done before 2019, using an off-line tool.

Background

The previous tool was available as a stand-alone tool . The first version of the tool was developed in 2014 and launched for use in February 2015.

It is designed to screen and benchmark emission inventories, especially to compare bottom-up and top-down estimates at the regional and/or city scale.

In the context of the Δ-Emission Tool, the denomination of bottom-up inventories (BUP) refers to any methodology used at local, regional or national level to compile emission. In the same context, top-down inventories (TOD) refers to emission datasets compiled for the whole of Europe using the same type of methodology across the whole of domain. The second version of the tool was launched in October 2015, and includes improvement to V1 based on feedback and comments from the FAIRMODE WG2 participants.

In the Table below the main functionalities and updates of the tool are presented and listed.

Tool VersionFunctionalities / UpdatesRelease Time
Version 3.0
  1. implementation of the EMEP-GNFR topdown emission inventory based on the NFR (Nomenclature for Reporting) categories;
  2. included are a few fake examples of GNFR categories. The per capita diagram for GNFR will be available soon;
  3. included are a few fake examples of GNFR categories. The per capita diagram for GNFR will be available soon;
  4. in the new installation procedure (only for new comers) some of the directories are hidden.
SEP 2017
Version 2.0
  1. option to download data from TOD inventories;
  2. option to visualise the TOD inventory in a map;
  3. new BUP emission datasets for Oslo, Stockholm, and Austria;
  4. new TOD emission data sets for MACC-III (different years) and for JRC for 2010.

 

OCT 2015

 

Version 1.0 - 1.3Main capability is to compare Top-down (TOD) versus bottom-up (BUP) emission inventoriesFEB 2015

Documents

Emission Tool v3.0 User's Guide
English
(1.19 MB - pdf)
Download
Cookbook for Use of the Δ Emission Tool
English
(862.61 KB - pdf)
Download
Emission Tool v2.0 User's Guide
English
(1.16 MB - pdf)
Download

A novel approach to screen and compare emission inventories

A methodology is proposed to support the evaluation and comparison of different types of emission inventories, and more specifically the comparison of bottom-up versus top-down approaches. The strengths and weaknesses of the methodology are...

 

Downloads

Emission Tool

Emission Tool Windows setup download v3.2
English
(52.59 MB - zip)
Download

 

City/Region datasets

Bottom-up local datasets - Emission Setup v6
English
(280.96 KB - zip)
Download
Bottom-up local datasets - Emission Setup v1
English
(2.91 MB - zip)
Download

EU top-down datasets

Note

The TNO-MACC-II and TNO-MAC-III emissions data were partly funded by the EU FP7 project MACC-II . For further reference and details see Kuenen et al. (2014)

Use of these inventories is restricted to the FAIRMODE WG2 (emissions) participants and for FAIRMODE assessment and benchmarking purposes. For more information and use outside of FAIRMODE, please contact H. Denier van der Gon

Note also that using the TNO-MACC data in your FAIRMODE exercise implies you agree to the TNO conditions of data use as described here . Some inventories (early years) are available but only on request

The JRC emission inventory is still under development and is therefore available only for testing purpose within FAIRMODE. For any additional information please contact Philippe Thunis.

 

YearMACC-IIMACC-IIIJRCGNFR
2000 on request  
2001 on request  
2002 on request  
2003on requeston request  
2004on requeston request  
2005on requeston request  
2006on requeston request  
2007on requeston request  
2008on requeston request  
2009downloadon request  
2010 on requestdownload 
2011 download  
2012   download

 

More information and links
Originally Published | Last Updated

31 Jul 2025 | 20 Oct 2025

Publisher | MetadataFAIRMODE Forum for Air Quality Modelling | Emission inventories
Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET)air quality policyair pollution
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