Guidance

Leaders: Susana Lopez-Aparicio (NILU), Marc Guevara (BSC)

Description

The focus of this WG is on the compilation of high resolution emissions to be used as basis for air quality modelling applications under the EU air quaity Directive 2024/2881, including assessment, planning, forecasting and source contribution. This focus is needed because existing guidance, such as the EMEP/EEA emission inventory guidebook, does not fully address emission compilation for modelling purposes, since it is primary intended towards reporting national emission totals. Methods designed for national reporting therefore tend to differ systematically from those required for modelling applications, which have different needs regarding spatial and temporal detail, as well as the input data and proxies used.

Activities performed under this WG are structured on the following main points :

1. Benchmarking: Intercomparison between existing European emission inventories (e.g., EMEP, CAMS-REG, EDGAR) and local emission inventories through the FAIRMODE Emission Benchmarking Tool to monitor progress, identify inconsistencies among inventories, and define next steps for their improvement. Regular intercomparisons exercises are carried out to support this activity.
2. Capacity building and identification of best practices: Organisation of webinars and activities focusing on knowledge transfer and capacity building on topics related to:
   1.  the compilation of emission inventories for specific air quality applications (e.g., planning)
   2. spatial mapping and temporal distribution of emissions
   3. quantification of emissions for specific categories and processes (e.g., resuspension) and 
   4. the use of emerging methods (e.g., satellite data, AI / ML) to support and improve high-resolutions emissions in a broader sense.
3. Development of recommendations and guidance: Based on the outcomes derived from the benchmarking and capacity building activities, elaborate recommendations on key aspects that support the compilation of robust emission inputs to support air quality modelling applications under the EU air quaity Directive 2024/2881

Documents

• Cookbook for Use of the Δ - Emission Tool (September 2015)
• Δ - Emission Tool User's guide (March 2015)

Publications

• Emission ensemble approach to improve the development of multi-scale emission inventories (2024 under review)
• A multi-pollutant and multi-sectorial approach to screening the consistency of emission inventories (2022)
• A probabilistic approach to screen and improve emission inventories (2020)
• Spatial inter-comparison of Top-down emission inventories in European urban areas (2018)
• Assessment of discrepancies between bottom-up and regional emission inventories in Norwegian urban areas (2017)
• A benchmarking tool to screen and compare bottom-up and top-down emission inventories (2016)
• A novel approach to screen and compare bottom-up vs. top-down emission inventories (2016)

Tools and datasets

• ECMAP - Emissions (2024)
• ECMap - Database

WG7 Meetings