Atmospheric Emission Sources in the Po-Basin from the LIFE-IP PREPAIR Project

Abstract

This paper presents the focus on emission estimates in the Italian Regions of the Po-basin obtained by the development of a common air pollutant emission dataset on the Po-basin and Slovenia foreseen in the project LIFE PREPAIR (https://www.lifeprepair.eu/). The objective is to update emission inventories developed by the environmental protection agencies and regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Valle d’Aosta, the province of Bolzano (participating as stakeholder) and the province of Trento. A data flux is defined considering the activities on emission estimates by the different administrations according to the current Italian legislation. This activity has allowed the completion of two different datasets on the area for 2013 and 2017. The estimates of primary emissions of the main atmospheric pollutants have a high spatial resolution defined at the municipal level. The non-industrial combustion of biomass in small domestic appliances is the main source of primary PM10 in the Po-basin. NOx primary emissions are determined for quite of a half by road transport. Manure management and fertilization in the agriculture sector are the sources of NH3. The ensemble of the collected data shows a very good comparability even if all local compilers perform independently the estimates, thanks to a good alignment in using reference methodologies and to projects of common methodological development, as reported by the INEMAR project (https://www.inemar.eu/). The estimates of PM10, NOx and NH3 are comparable with data reported by the European Environment Agency EEA for the European Member States EU-28 (until 1 February 2020) and for Italy, reported under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution and European Union National Emission Ceiling Directive.