Guidance
Leaders: Stijn Janssen (VITO), Joana Soares (NILU)
Description
The aim of this WG is to support the use of modelling approaches for air quality planning purposes. It includes:
- Support to local, regional and national authorities in designing efficient and coherent measures,
- Exchange of good practices to harmonise the reporting of air quality plans and ensure comparability,
- The development of QA/QC methods to assess the quality of models when used for planning purposes.
The WG5 activities will focus on:
- Using models in support to the AQ planning process. What are the main obstacles, both from a technical and governance perspective?
- Assessing the sensitivity and robustness of model responses to emission reductions
- Providing recommendations on the combined use of models and observations for planning purposes
- Supporting the reporting of plans and air quality measures through a common template
- Evaluating consequences for e-reporting of planning data
- Providing overall support to model users (SHERPA, air quality models…) in their planning activities (measures, emission and model scenarios)
Publications
- Assessment of the sensitivity of model responses to urban emission changes in support of emission reduction strategies (2023)
- Assessing the Impact of Local Policies on PM2.5 Concentration Levels: Application to 10 European Cities (2022)
- Impact of SOx, NOx and NH3 emission reductions on PM2.5 concentrations across Europe: Hints for future measure development (2021)
- Non-linear response of PM2.5 to changes in NOx and NH3 emissions in the Po basin (Italy): Consequences for air quality plans (2021)
- Prioritising the sources of pollution in European cities: Do air quality modelling applications provide consistent responses? (2020)
- Application of the SHERPA source-receptor relationships, based on the EMEP MSC-W model, for the assessment of air quality policy scenarios (2019)
- Best practices for local and regional Air Quality management (2022)
- Supporting the improvement of air quality management practices: The “FAIRMODE pilot” activity (2019)
- Indicators to support the dynamic evaluation of air quality models (2014)
- Dynamic evaluation of air quality models over European regions (2015)
- Adding spatial flexibility to source-receptor relationships for air quality modeling (2017)
- On the design and assessment of regional air quality plans: The SHERPA approach (2016)
- Screening of the EMEP source receptor relationships: application to five European countries (2016)
- A new approach to design source receptor relationships for air quality modelling (2016)
Tools and datasets
WG5 Meetings
| Originally Published | Last Updated | 30 Jul 2025 | 07 Nov 2025 |
| Publisher | Metadata | FAIRMODE | PlanningSHERPA |
| Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET) | air quality policy |
PAGE | 05 Dec 2025
Sherpa
SHERPA (Screening for High Emission Reduction Potential on Air) is a Python tool, which allows for a rapid exploration of potential air quality improvements resulting from national/regional/local emission...
PAGE | 07 Nov 2025
Source apportionment to support AQ management (Working Group 1)
Working Group 1 delivers guidance on the fitness for purpose of different source apportionment approaches in the overall context of air quality management practices.
PAGE | 07 Nov 2025
About FAIRMODE
The Forum for Air quality Modeling (FAIRMODE) was launched in 2007 as a joint response initiative of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission Joint Research Centre...
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