An integrated assessment tool to define effective air quality policies at regional scale

  • Authors:

  • Claudio Carnevale;Giovanna Finzi;Enrico Pisoni;Marialuisa Volta;Giorgio Guariso;Roberta Gianfreda;Giuseppe Maffeis;Philippe Thunis;Les White;Giuseppe Triacchini

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy;Department of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy;Department of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy;Department of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy;Department of Electronics and Information, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo Di Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy;TerrAria s.r.l., via Melchiorre Gioia 132, Milan, Italy;TerrAria s.r.l., via Melchiorre Gioia 132, Milan, Italy;European Commission-DG Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, I-21020 Ispra, Italy;Les White Associates, 42 Blunts Wood Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1NB, United Kingdom;Dietary and Chemical Monitoring Unit, EFSA - European Food Safety Authority, Via Carlo Magno 1A, I - 43126 Parma, Italy

  • Venue:
  • Environmental Modelling & Software
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

In this paper, the Integrated Assessment of air quality is dealt with at regional scale. First the paper describes the main challenges to tackle current air pollution control, including economic aspects. Then it proposes a novel approach to manage the problem, presenting its mathematical formalization and describing its practical implementation into the Regional Integrated Assessment Tool (RIAT). The main features of the software system are described and some preliminary results on a domain in Northern Italy are illustrated. The novel features in RIAT are then compared to the state-of-the-art in integrated assessment of air quality, for example the ability to handle nonlinearities (instead of the usual linear approach) and the multi-objective framework (alternative to cost-effectiveness and scenario analysis). Then the lessons learned during the RIAT implementation are discussed, focusing on the locality, flexibility and openness of the tool. Finally the areas for further development of air quality integrated assessment are highlighted, with a focus on sensitivity analysis, structural and non technical measures, and the application of parallel computing concepts.