Found 9941 publications. Showing page 328 of 398:
2021
Transboundary particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components
Norwegian Meteorological Institute
2021
Why is the city's responsibility for its air pollution often underestimated? A focus on PM2.5
While the burden caused by air pollution in urban areas is well documented, the origin of this pollution and therefore the responsibility of the urban areas in generating this pollution are still a subject of scientific discussion. Source apportionment represents a useful technique to quantify the city's responsibility, but the approaches and applications are not harmonized and therefore not comparable, resulting in confusing and sometimes contradicting interpretations. In this work, we analyse how different source apportionment approaches apply to the urban scale and how their building elements and parameters are defined and set. We discuss in particular the options available in terms of indicator, receptor, source, and methodology. We show that different choices for these options lead to very large differences in terms of outcome. For the 150 large EU cities selected in our study, different choices made for the indicator, the receptor, and the source each lead to an average difference of a factor of 2 in terms of city contribution. We also show that temporal- and spatial-averaging processes applied to the air quality indicator, especially when diverging source apportionments are aggregated into a single number, lead to the favouring of strategies that target background sources while occulting actions that would be efficient in the city centre. We stress that methodological choices and assumptions most often lead to a systematic and important underestimation of the city's responsibility, with important implications. Indeed, if cities are seen as a minor actor, plans will target the background as a priority at the expense of potentially effective local actions.
2021
Brominated Flame Retardants in Antarctic Air in the Vicinity of Two All-Year Research Stations
Continuous atmospheric sampling was conducted between 2010–2015 at Casey station in Wilkes Land, Antarctica, and throughout 2013 at Troll Station in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Sample extracts were analyzed for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and the naturally converted brominated compound, 2,4,6-Tribromoanisole, to explore regional profiles. This represents the first report of seasonal resolution of PBDEs in the Antarctic atmosphere, and we describe conspicuous differences in the ambient atmospheric concentrations of brominated compounds observed between the two stations. Notably, levels of BDE-47 detected at Troll station were higher than those previously detected in the Antarctic or Southern Ocean region, with a maximum concentration of 7800 fg/m3. Elevated levels of penta-formulation PBDE congeners at Troll coincided with local building activities and subsided in the months following completion of activities. The latter provides important information for managers of National Antarctic Programs for preventing the release of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances in Antarctica.
MDPI
2021
Information Requirements under the Essential-Use Concept: PFAS Case Studies
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of substances for which there are widespread concerns about their extreme persistence in combination with toxic effects. It has been argued that PFAS should only be employed in those uses that are necessary for health or safety or are critical for the functioning of society and where no alternatives are available (“essential-use concept”). Implementing the essential-use concept requires a sufficient understanding of the current uses of PFAS and of the availability, suitability, and hazardous properties of alternatives. To illustrate the information requirements under the essential-use concept, we investigate seven different PFAS uses, three in consumer products and four industrial applications. We investigate how much information is available on the types and functions of PFAS in these uses, how much information is available on alternatives, their performance and hazardous properties and, finally, whether this information is sufficient as a basis for deciding on the essentiality of a PFAS use. The results show (i) the uses of PFAS are highly diverse and information on alternatives is often limited or lacking; (ii) PFAS in consumer products often are relatively easy to replace; (iii) PFAS uses in industrial processes can be highly complex and a thorough evaluation of the technical function of each PFAS and of the suitability of alternatives is needed; (iv) more coordination among PFAS manufacturers, manufacturers of alternatives to PFAS, users of these materials, government authorities, and other stakeholders is needed to make the process of phasing out PFAS more transparent and coherent.
2021
2021
2021
Editorial for the Special Issue From Nanoinformatics to Nanomaterials Risk Assessment and Governance
MDPI
2021
Målinger av PM10 i Lohavn. April og mai 2020.
NILU – Norsk institutt for luftforskning har på oppdrag fra HAV Eiendom utført målinger av svevestøv (PM10) i Lohavn i Oslo. Området skal utvikles til et nytt byområde med boliger, skole, utearealer og næring. PM-konsentrasjonen ble målt på tre steder i Lohavn for å kartlegge svevestøvkonsentrasjonen og mulige kilder. Måleprosjektet pågikk våren 2020. Mulige effekter av Covid-nedstengning, variasjoner i trafikkmengden i området og variasjoner av meteorologiske parametere på PM-konsentrasjonen er diskutert.
Måleresultatene viser lavere PM-konsentrasjon enn i måleperioden 2016/17. Årsaken var trolig bortfall av midlertidige kilder som førte til periodevis høye konsentrasjoner i 2016/17. De høyeste PM10-konsentrasjonene ble observert ved vind fra sør-sørvest (som dominerer på dagtid).
NILU
2021
Målinger av SO2 i omgivelsene til Elkem Carbon og REC Solar. Januar 2020 – desember 2020.
På oppdrag fra Elkem Carbon AS har NILU utført målinger av SO2 i omgivelsene til Elkem Carbon og REC Solar i Vågsbygd
(Kristiansand kommune). Bedriftene ble pålagt av Miljødirektoratet å gjennomføre SO2-målinger i omgivelsesluft.
Målingene ble utført med SO2-monitor i boligområdet på Fiskåtangen (Konsul Wilds vei) og med passive SO2-prøvetakere
ved 6 steder rundt bedriftene. Rapporten dekker målinger i perioden 1. januar 2020 – 31. desember 2020.
Norske grenseverdier for luftkvalitet (SO2) ble overholdt ved Konsul Wilds vei for alle midlingsperioder krevet i
forurensningsforskriften (årsmiddel, vintermiddel, døgnmiddel og timemiddel). De mest belastede stedene i måleperioden
var Konsul Wilds vei og Fiskåveien rett sør for bedriftene.
NILU
2021
Observed and Modeled Black Carbon Deposition and Sources in the Western Russian Arctic 1800−2014
Black carbon (BC) particles contribute to climate warming by heating the atmosphere and reducing the albedo of snow/ice surfaces. The available Arctic BC deposition records are restricted to the Atlantic and North American sectors, for which previous studies suggest considerable spatial differences in trends. Here, we present first long-term BC deposition and radiocarbon-based source apportionment data from Russia using four lake sediment records from western Arctic Russia, a region influenced by BC emissions from oil and gas production. The records consistently indicate increasing BC fluxes between 1800 and 2014. The radiocarbon analyses suggest mainly (∼70%) biomass sources for BC with fossil fuel contributions peaking around 1960–1990. Backward calculations with the atmospheric transport model FLEXPART show emission source areas and indicate that modeled BC deposition between 1900 and 1999 is largely driven by emission trends. Comparison of observed and modeled data suggests the need to update anthropogenic BC emission inventories for Russia, as these seem to underestimate Russian BC emissions and since 1980s potentially inaccurately portray their trend. Additionally, the observations may indicate underestimation of wildfire emissions in inventories. Reliable information on BC deposition trends and sources is essential for design of efficient and effective policies to limit climate warming.
2021
Pollutants emitted by industrial processes are deposited across the landscape. Ice core records from mid-latitude glaciers located close to emission sources document the history of local-to-regional pollution since preindustrial times. Such records underpin attribution of pollutants to specific emission sources critical to developing abatement policies. Previous ice core studies from the Alps document the overall magnitude and timing of pollution related to nitrogen and sulfur-derived species, as well as a few metals including lead. Here, we used subannually resolved measurements of vanadium (V) and molybdenum (Mo) in two ice cores from Col du Dome (French Alps), as well as atmospheric transport and deposition modeling, to investigate sources of pollution in the free European troposphere. The noncrustal V and Mo (ncV, ncMo) components were calculated by subtracting the crustal component from the total concentration. These ice core results showed a 32-fold increase in ncV and a 69-fold increase in ncMo from the preindustrial era (pre-1860) to the industrial concentration peaks. Anthropogenic V and Mo emissions in Europe were estimated using emission factors from oil and coal consumption and atmospheric transport and deposition modeling. When comparing ice core data to estimated anthropogenic V and Mo emissions in Europe, V was found to be sourced primarily from oil combustion emissions. Conversely, coal and oil combustion estimated emissions did not agree with the measured ice core Mo concentrations, suggesting that other anthropogenic Mo sources dominated coal-burning emissions, particularly after the 1950s. Noncoal-burning sources of Mo may include metallurgy although emission factors are poorly known.
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2021
The effect of the 2018 extreme meteorological conditions in Europe on methane (CH4) emissions is examined using estimates from four atmospheric inversions calculated for the period 2005–2018. For most of Europe, we find no anomaly in 2018 compared to the 2005–2018 mean. However, we find a positive anomaly for the Netherlands in April, which coincided with positive temperature and soil moisture anomalies suggesting an increase in biogenic sources. We also find a negative anomaly for the Netherlands for September–October, which coincided with a negative anomaly in soil moisture, suggesting a decrease in soil sources. In addition, we find a positive anomaly for Serbia in spring, summer and autumn, which coincided with increases in temperature and soil moisture, again suggestive of changes in biogenic sources, and the annual emission for 2018 was 33 ± 38% higher than the 2005–2017 mean. These results indicate that CH4 emissions from areas where the natural source is thought to be relatively small can still vary due to meteorological conditions. At the European scale though, the degree of variability over 2005–2018 was small, and there was negligible impact on the annual CH4 emissions in 2018 despite the extreme meteorological conditions.
This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 2)’.
2021
2021
2021
Atmospheric composition in the European Arctic and 30 years of the Zeppelin Observatory, Ny-Ålesund,
2021
Reliable quantification of the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, together with trends and uncertainties, is essential to monitoring the progress in mitigating anthropogenic emissions under the Paris Agreement. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of CH4 and N2O emissions with consistently derived state-of-the-art bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) data sources for the European Union and UK (EU27 + UK). We integrate recent emission inventory data, ecosystem process-based model results and inverse modeling estimates over the period 1990–2017. BU and TD products are compared with European national greenhouse gas inventories (NGHGIs) reported to the UN climate convention UNFCCC secretariat in 2019. For uncertainties, we used for NGHGIs the standard deviation obtained by varying parameters of inventory calculations, reported by the member states (MSs) following the recommendations of the IPCC Guidelines. For atmospheric inversion models (TD) or other inventory datasets (BU), we defined uncertainties from the spread between different model estimates or model-specific uncertainties when reported. In comparing NGHGIs with other approaches, a key source of bias is the activities included, e.g., anthropogenic versus anthropogenic plus natural fluxes. In inversions, the separation between anthropogenic and natural emissions is sensitive to the geospatial prior distribution of emissions. Over the 2011–2015 period, which is the common denominator of data availability between all sources, the anthropogenic BU approaches are directly comparable, reporting mean emissions of 20.8 Tg CH4 yr−1 (EDGAR v5.0) and 19.0 Tg CH4 yr−1 (GAINS), consistent with the NGHGI estimates of 18.9 ± 1.7 Tg CH4 yr−1. The estimates of TD total inversions give higher emission estimates, as they also include natural emissions. Over the same period regional TD inversions with higher-resolution atmospheric transport models give a mean emission of 28.8 Tg CH4 yr−1. Coarser-resolution global TD inversions are consistent with regional TD inversions, for global inversions with GOSAT satellite data (23.3 Tg CH4 yr−1) and surface network (24.4 Tg CH4 yr−1). The magnitude of natural peatland emissions from the JSBACH–HIMMELI model, natural rivers and lakes emissions, and geological sources together account for the gap between NGHGIs and inversions and account for 5.2 Tg CH4 yr−1. For N2O emissions, over the 2011–2015 period, both BU approaches (EDGAR v5.0 and GAINS) give a mean value of anthropogenic emissions of 0.8 and 0.9 Tg N2O yr−1, respectively, agreeing with the NGHGI data (0.9 ± 0.6 Tg N2O yr−1). Over the same period, the average of the three total TD global and regional inversions was 1.3 ± 0.4 and 1.3 ± 0.1 Tg N2O yr−1, respectively. The TD and BU comparison method defined in this study can be operationalized for future yearly updates for the calculation of CH4 and N2O budgets both at the EU+UK scale and at the national scale. The referenced datasets related to figures are visualized at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4590875 (Petrescu et al., 2020b)
2021
The report evaluates current mapping methodology with respect to city- and NUTS3-levels mapping across Europe. It states that the current mapping can be used at the city and the NUTS3 levels, despite a mild smoothing effect at locations of the measurement stations. However, it suggests a post-processing correction based on the mapping residuals.
A potential new approach for the city ranking have been examined, namely the population-weighted concentration based on the mapping results. While the averaged measurement data from the background stations (as used in the current city ranking) provides a superior information for the whole city in general, the population-weighted concentration also well represents the whole city and gives a consistent information for all cities, including those without station measurements.
Next to this, alternative treatments of rural and urban stations has been evaluated. If the urban traffic areas should be better represented in the final maps, an increased map resolution is recommended.
Several possibilities of future development towards the European-wide city level mapping in a fine resolution have been suggested, namely exploitation of a high-resolution model output in the existing methodology, geostatistical downscaling of the existing spatial maps using fine-resolution proxy datasets and exploitation of existing low-cost sensor networks.
ETC/ATNI
2021
Environmental Contaminants in an Urban Fjord, 2020
This programme, “Environmental Contaminants in an Urban Fjord” has covered sampling and analyses of sediment and organisms in a marine food web of the Inner Oslofjord, in addition to samples of blood and eggs from herring gull. The programme also included inputs of pollutants via surface water (stormwater), and effluent water and sludge from a wastewater treatment plant. The bioaccumulation potential of the contaminants in the Oslo fjord food web was evaluated. The exposure to/accumulation of the contaminants was also assessed in birds. A vast number of chemical parameters have been quantified, in addition to some biological effect parameters in cod, and the report serves as a status description of the concentrations of these chemicals in different compartments of the Inner Oslofjord marine ecosystem.
Norsk institutt for vannforskning
2021