Emissions in the Po basin: PREPAIR creates a database on the whole territory
An emissions inventory is an organized series of data about the amount of pollutants introduced into the atmosphere from natural sources and human activities, with particular reference to a specific period of time and a specific territorial area. An inventory of this kind has been developed within action A1 of PREPAIR: emission data of the Po basin and Slovenia for the year 2013 have been collected and analyzed; this area is 135,000 km2 wide and has 28 million inhabitants.
This database was obtained from the combination of local or national (for Slovenia) inventories developed in the different territorial areas and maintaining as much detail as possible on the types of emission sources and on the territories of the singles municipalities.
From a quantitative perspective, the emission data analysis of the Po basin regions confirms the relevance of the non-industrial combustion sector for the PM10 emissions, 56% of the total (59% for the whole domain), followed by road transport, 20% of the total emissions of PM10 (18% on the whole domain). Road transport represents also 50% of the total NOx emissions (51% on the PREPAIR domain), followed by industrial combustion (15% and 14% on the domain) and off-road vehicles (13% and 12% on the domain). The agriculture sector is confirmed as the main emission source of NH3 (97% of the total emissions).
Data confirm also that the Po basin represents a unique hot-spot in Europe. The Po valley is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe and yet the PM10 and NOx emissions per capita are lower than the average of EU28 countries (EEA, 2018). In fact, data demonstrate that PM10 emissions per capita in the Po basin are 3 Kg/person/year (3,4 kg/person/year for the PREPAIR domain) versus 4,3 kg/person/year of EU28 in 2013. Similarly, NOx emissions per capita are about 15 kg/person/year both for the Po basin and the PREPAIR domain versus 16,6 kg/person/year of EU28 in 2013.
The analysis of the emission data and of the emission estimation methodologies supported also the preliminary activities of those actions that will define and collect new data within the project.
The final report on the emission database and its abstract can be found in the section Documents & outputs of action Emissions dataset at this link.
