1. Topic

2. Introduction

For today's environmental authorities/managers there is a strong need for operative systems that enables to efficiently perform their main task: to secure, through planning and abatement decisions, a continued acceptable or improved air quality, or development towards compliance with directives, standards or guidelines.

There is a range of needs that state-of-the-science UAQM systems should satisfy. Urban environmental authorities and managers of institutions with the operative responsibility for air quality management, to assess, control and improve air quality, need systems that can satisfy the following:

· Near-real-time access to monitoring data, and direct presentation of this to the public in an understandable format (now using internet or other telecommunications modes);

· Short-term forecasting of air quality ("tomorrow's air"), and similarly presentation of this to the public. Also as a basis for activating short-term abatement actions;

· Assessment of present air quality (in a statistical sense, e.g. last year's air quality, its variation in time and space, exceedances of limit values, etc.), as needed for instance for reporting to higher authorities (e.g. the European Commission). Spatial and temporal resolution according to the nature of the problems;

· Planning needs: Prognosis (forecasting) of future air quality, for various scenarios of development and abatement;

· Development of cost-effective abatement strategies, where costs of abatement are compared with avoided damage costs (benefits). Possibilities for developing optimized abatement strategies;

· Visualization tools to support the needs for presentation of results from the system, for the system users as well as for the public, and in various media.

There are at present a number of viable UAQM systems available to users in cities, either as self-sufficient systems for use by the cities themselves, or to be used by the research groups developing them on a contract basis in response to specific needs by cities. Many of them can be run on PC servers. The scientific quality and operational functionality of the systems is high in general, and has already significantly improved the ratio between the extent of customised results and the resources used. However, the technological development related to software and telecommunications gives the possibility for continuously enhancing this ratio between effective results and resource input.

3. Discussion

Structure of UAQM systems

The key feature of a modern environmental information and management system is the integrated approach that enables the user in an efficient way not only to access data quickly, but also to use the data directly in the assessment and in the planning of actions. The demands to the integrating features of the systems, to enable monitoring, forecasting and warning, and future strategy planning, as well as visualization and presentations, will be increasing in the future. The typical structure of UAQMs responds to this demand for integration.

Taking THE USER as the starting point, the one who is delivering the terms/premises for the development and functionalities of the UAQM systems, Figure 1 visualises how all the various typical elements (modules) of an air quality analysis (emissions, monitoring data, models etc.) serves him/her as they are linked together in software systems, the main purpose of which is to support the needs for making decisions, be it in the short term or long term.

Fig. 1. A structure of principle of a modern environmental information and management system.

There is a large number of elements and types of data and models that are to be integrated in a functional AQM system. Figure 2 indicates the typical elements of data and models, and how they need to be linked through an interface which includes a GIS tool, and also a report generator and visualisation modules (called "data wizard" in the figure), to provide the needed outputs. The data wizard module of course will have many general elements, but is also a place where the AQM system can be custom made to the user, to fulfil his/her special needs.

Fig. 2. Typical data and system elements and modules to be integrated in an AQM system.

Figure 3 shows the typical structure of AQM systems in a more functional way. The various modules are linked (integrated) in loop structure. The "emissions" module is often taken as the starting point of an air quality analysis. However, the "monitoring" may be an equally valid starting point, to first assess present air quality before entering into its analysis. The point is that in the integrated loop type structure, the system can be entered from different angles.

There are (at least) two main sections of the loop:

· the air quality assessment section (blue boxes), where the air quality in an area (e.g. a city) is assessed either by monitoring, by modeling, or a combination. Most UAQM systems include these modules, and results to be visualized may include e.g. present concentrations (on-line or statistically, measured data in points or iso-lines of modeled concentrations), forecasts, baseline prognosis.

· the air quality abatement section (green boxes), where damage and its costs, and abatement options and their costs are assessed and compared /optimized. So far few UAQM systems include much of this section in an integrated way, although present–day systems are suitable for making the same kind of analysis "off-line", i.e. the AQ assessment part is activated and run for various abatement strategies, and results compared and "optimized" into control packages/strategies, external to the system.

Fig. 3. Functional structure of modules in an integrated AQM system

Available UAQM software systems

The following list of European UAQM systems have been developed by groups participating in the EUROTRAC-2 SATURN project ("Studying atmospheric pollution in urban areas"):

· ADMS-Urban: ADMS-Urban Air Quality management system (Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants).

· AirQUIS: Air Quality Information and Management System (Norwegian Institute for Air Research).

· GAMES/AQUAS: Comprehensive Modelling and Decision Support Systems for Photochemical Pollution Control in Metropolitan Areas (Univ. of Breccias, The Electronic for Automation Department Group).

· “IUAQMS”: Integrated Urban AQM System (Univ. of Aveiro, Department Of Environment and Planning)

· IUEMIS: Integrated Urban Environmental and Information Systems (Aristotle University of Thessalonica, LHTEE Group)

· OPANA: Operational Atmospheric Numerical Pollution Model for urban and Regional Areas (Technical Univ. of Madrid, Environmental Software and Modelling Group).

· Photosmog: Photosmog pollution Episode Warning System (UFZ-Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle Ltd, Department of Human Exposure Research and Epidemiology)

· UDM: Urban Dispersion and Exposure Modelling System (Finnish Meteorological Institute)

· URBIS: Urban Information and Management System (TNO)

These systems can be classified as follows:

· Research-tool systems: GAMES/AQUAS, Photosmog, UDM.

· Partly self-sustained systems: IUAQMS, IUEMIS, OPANA, URBIS.

· Self-sustained systems: ADMS-Urban, AirQUIS.

The systems have been applied in various cities in Europe and elsewhere.

More information on the details of the systems, and their applications in various cities, is found in the link to the SATURN Final report in the Further reading section below.

Other available European self-sustained systems on the market are:

· AirViro Developed by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute

· ENVIMAN Developed by OPSIS company, Sweden.

· HEAVEN Traffic, Emissions and AQ Models - HEAVEN integrated AQMS system at STA – Rome.

A world-wide inventory of UAQM systems has not been conducted in this Integaire context. The web pages below can also be explored for models and systems information and possible assistance.More information on the details of the systems, and their applications in various cities, is found in the link to the SATURN Final report in the Further reading section below.

Other available European self-sustained systems on the market are:

· AirViro Developed by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute

· ENVIMAN Developed by OPSIS company, Sweden.

· HEAVEN Traffic, Emissions and AQ Models - HEAVEN integrated AQMS system
at STA – Rome.

A world-wide inventory of UAQM systems has not been conducted in this Integaire context. The web pages below can also be explored for models and systems information and possible assistance.

4. Recommendation / Conclusion

· Integrated Urban AQM systems to display data on-line, to perform assessments, with time and spatial resolution, of present and future air pollution distribution and the specific source contributions to it, and thus to provide basis for effective abatement strategies, make them directly useful for urban authorities and other users. The use of the systems by outside users does require an amount of training. Different systems have different capabilities, so an evaluation of user needs is necessary when acquiring of a system is contemplated. As mentioned earlier, other systems than those described here are available.

· The development of AQM systems will continue. Models will improve, systems will be extended to more compounds (e.g. various PM size fractions), operability and user-friendliness will improve. This development will be driven partly by the further demands to AQ management from national and European authorities, but also by the science itself, and its impetus towards improving the usefulness of its products.

5. Examples / Further Reading

Example The use of the AQM system INDIC Airviro in Birmingham – West Midlands

Example The use of the AQM system AirQUIS in Oslo

Example Traffic, Emissions and AQ Models in HEAVEN integrated AQMS system in Rome

6. Additional Documents / Web Links

· SATURN project Final report, Ch 9: Integrated urban Air Quality Assessment: http://aix.meng.auth.gr/saturn/finalreport/n-ch9.pdf

· The AirQUIS system: http://www.airquis.com/

· DYNEMO - DYMOS SYSTEM (Fraunhofer Institute fro Computer Architecture Software Technology (FIRST), System Analysis and Simulation Department (SAS), Berlin). Dynamic Models for Smog Analysis: www.first.fraunhofer.de/applications/proj/dymos_more.html

· EDSS (MCNC, North Carolina Supercomputing Center). Environmental Decision Support System: www.emc.mcnc.org/EDSS/

· Breeze Software (Trinity Consultants Inc.): http://www.breeze-software.com/

· AQRoad (Enviroware S.R.l.): http://www.enviroware.com/

· ARIA Regional (Aria Technologies, Arianet): http://www.aria.fr/; http://aria-net.it/

· AIRPACT: air Indicator Report fro Public Access and Community Tracking (Washington State University): http://www.airpact.wsu.edu/

· Examples of urban AQ management practice: Air Quality management (Eds: J.W.S. Longhurst, D.M. Elsom and H. Power). WIT Press, Ashurst, UK (2000)

Last Updated

25th January 2005