Found 10076 publications. Showing page 326 of 404:
2020
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service
2020
2020
Social-Environmental Analysis for the Management of Coastal Lagoons in North Africa
This study provides an overview of 11 lagoons in North Africa, from the Atlantic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Lagoons are complex, transitional, coastal zones providing valuable ecosystem services that contribute to the welfare of the human population. The main economic sectors in the lagoons included fishing, shellfish harvesting, and salt and sand extraction, as well as maritime transport. Economic sectors in the areas around the lagoons and in the watershed included agriculture, tourism, recreation, industrial, and urban development. Changes were also identified in land use from reclamation, changes in hydrology, changes in sedimentology from damming, inlet modifications, and coastal engineering. The human activities in and around the lagoons exert multiple pressures on these ecosystems and result in changes in the environment, affecting salinity, dissolved oxygen, and erosion; changes in the ecology, such as loss of biodiversity; and changes in the delivery of valuable ecosystem services. Loss of ecosystem services such as coastal protection and seafood affect human populations that live around the lagoons and depend on them for their livelihood. Adaptive management frameworks for social–ecological systems provide options that support decision makers with science-based knowledge to deliver sustainable development for ecosystems. The framework used to support the decision makers for environmental management of these 11 lagoons is Drivers–Activities–Pressures–State Change–Impact (on Welfare)–Responses (as Measures).
2020
Costs and benefits of implementing an Environmental Speed Limit in a Nordic city
We present a comprehensive study on the impacts and associated changes in costs resulting from the implementation of Environmental Speed Limits (ESLs), as a measure to reduce PM10 and associated health effects. We present detailed modelled emissions (i.e., CO2, NOx, PM2.5 and PM10), concentration levels (i.e., PM2.5 and PM10) and population exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 under three scenarios of ESL implementation for the Metropolitan Area of Oslo. We find that whilst emissions of NOx and CO2 do not seem to show significant changes with ESL implementation, PM10 emissions are reduced by 6–12% and annual concentration levels are reduced up to 8%, with a subsequent reduction in population exposure. The modelled data is used to carry out a detailed analysis to quantify the changes in private and social costs for the roads in Oslo where ESL are implemented today. This involves assessments related to human health, climate, fuel consumption, time losses and the incidence of traffic accidents. For a scenario using actual speed data from ESL implementation, our study shows a net benefit associated with the implementation of ESLs, whilst for a theoretical scenario with strict speed limit compliance we find a net increase in costs. This is largely due to variation in costs due to time losses between the scenarios, although uncertainties are high.
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Kartlegging av NO2-konsentrasjoner i luft ved E16 Arna – Vågsbotn ble utført av NILU på oppdrag fra Statens vegvesen.
Målingene ble utført med passive prøvetakere ved 10 steder i området Gaupås-Kalsås-Blinde. Prosjektet ble gjennomført
vinteren 2020 (28. januar – 24. mars) i et område som er utsatt for inversjonsforhold i vintermånedene.
Vinteren 2019-2020 viste seg til å bli en mild vinter, inversjonsforhold ble ikke registrert. NO2-konsentrasjonen var høyest den første uken målingene pågikk og ble gradvis lavere i påfølgende uker. De siste 2 ukene var påvirket av mindre trafikk som en følge av pandemitiltak. Middelkonsentrasjonen ved det mest forurensede målestedet over hele måleperioden var 22,9 μg/m3. Sammenligning av resultatene fra måleområdet med observasjoner fra målestasjoner i Bergen viste at NO2-konsentrasjonen rett ved E16 var på samme nivå som ved veinære stasjoner i Bergen.
NILU
2020
Equinor Mongstad. Spredningsberegninger av utslipp til luft.
NILU har vurdert spredning av utslipp til luft fra Mongstad raffineri. Bakgrunnen er krav fra Miljødirektoratet i forbindelse med ny virksomhetstillatelse. Fokus i studien er på NOx, SOx og støv/partikler. Timemiddelkonsentrasjoner er beregnet ved hjelp av modellen CONCX. Regionale beregninger av konsentrasjoner og avsetning er utført med WRF-EMEP modellsystem. CONCX-beregningene viser at maksimalt beregnet timemiddel er langt lavere enn norske grenseverdier. WRF-EMEP-beregningene viser lave maksimumsverdier av NOx/NO2, SO2 og svevestøv/PM10 i nærområdet til Mongstad raffineri. Alle beregnede maksimumsverdier er lavere enn norske grenseverdier. Av utslippene fra Mongstad avsettes 12 % av nitrogen, 17 % av svovel og 18 % av PM10 innenfor det innerste gridet (105 x 105 km2). Som et tillegg er det gjort vurderinger av de prioriterte stoffene bly, kvikksølv, krom, PCB7, kadmium og arsen. Bidraget fra Mongstad raffineri er lite.
NILU
2020
Estimation of damage cost to building facades per kilo emission of air pollution in Norway
This work reports marginal damage costs to façades due to air pollution exposure estimated “bottom up,” for Norway and Oslo (Norway) by the use of exposure response functions (ERFs) and impact pathway analysis from the emission to the deteriorating impact. The aim of the work was to supply cost estimates that could be compared with reported damage costs to health, agriculture, and ecosystems, and that could be used in cost-benefit analysis by environmental authorities. The marginal damage costs for cleaning, repair, and in total (cleaning + repair) were found to be, in Norway: eight, two, and 10, respectively, and for a traffic situation in Oslo: 50 (77), 50 (28), and 100 (105), (×/÷ 2.5) Euro/kg emission of PM10, SO2, and NO2 in total. For Oslo, the values represent a recorded façade materials inventory for 17–18th century buildings, and in the brackets the same façade inventory as for Norway. In total, 5–10% of the marginal damage cost was found to be due to NO2. The total marginal cost was found to be shared about equally between the impact of PM10 and SO2 in Norway (50 and 42% of the impact) and for the 17–18th century buildings in Oslo (45% and 49% of the impact), but for a similar façade materials inventory in Oslo as Norway, the total marginal cost due to PM10 was about two-thirds and that due to SO2 about one-third of the total, with about 5% of the cost still being due to NO2. The division of the costs between the separate pollutant influences on the cleaning and repair was, however, found to be significantly different in Norway and Oslo. In Norway, about 60% of the marginal cleaning cost was found to be due to PM10, 30% due to SO2, and 10% due to NO2. In Oslo, about 85% of the marginal cleaning costs were found to be due to PM10, 10% due to SO2, and 5% due to NO2. For the marginal repair cost, the opposite situation was found, in both Norway and Oslo, with 80–90% of the cost being due to SO2, 5–10% being due to PM10, and 5–10% due to NO2. As other factors than air pollution deteriorates façades and influences maintenance decisions, the expenses that can be attributed to the air pollution could be significantly lower.
2020
Atmospheric turbulence and in particular its effect on tracer dispersion may be measured by cameras sensitive to the absorption of ultraviolet (UV) sunlight by sulfur dioxide (SO2), a gas that can be considered a passive tracer over short transport distances. We present a method to simulate UV camera measurements of SO2 with a 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer model which takes input from a large eddy simulation (LES) of a SO2 plume released from a point source. From the simulated images the apparent absorbance and various plume density statistics (centre-line position, meandering, absolute and relative dispersion, and skewness) were calculated. These were compared with corresponding quantities obtained directly from the LES. Mean differences of centre-line position, absolute and relative dispersions, and skewness between the simulated images and the LES were generally found to be smaller than or about the voxel resolution of the LES. Furthermore, sensitivity studies were made to quantify how changes in solar azimuth and zenith angles, aerosol loading (background and in plume), and surface albedo impact the UV camera image plume statistics. Changing the values of these parameters within realistic limits has negligible effects on the centre-line position, meandering, absolute and relative dispersions, and skewness of the SO2 plume. Thus, we demonstrate that UV camera images of SO2 plumes may be used to derive plume statistics of relevance for the study of atmospheric turbulent dispersion.
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