No abstract

Spatial distribution of emissions is a key element in assessing human exposure to air pollution through use of dispersion modelling. The quality of the spatial emission mapping is crucial for the quality, applicability and reliability of modelled air pollution levels, estimated human exposure, incurred health effects and related costs; all very important information for policy makers in decisions of implementation of environmental policies and measures. The purpose of the MapEIre project, funded by Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency, is to develop a high-resolution spatial mapping of the Irish emission inventory. The work is state-of-the-art and combines a large amount of statistical data with detailed spatial information to allow for a complete spatial emission mapping on a 1 kilometre by 1-kilometre resolution. The spatial model is developed as an integrated database system focusing on user-friendliness and performance optimisation. The spatial model for Ireland integrates official statistics, such as the Irish emission inventory, and censuses of population, housing and agriculture, with a large number of spatial datasets as diverse as heat demand, building use, road network and land cover maps, selected through a comprehensive assessment of available spatial data. The model covers 32 pollutants and 177 sectors and includes the entire Irish exclusive economic zone. The methodology developed and the lessons learned will be of great benefit to other countries, which are embarking to develop high-resolution spatial emission distributions. The detailed spatial distribution of emissions can be used by policy makers on both national and local level in decision making and prioritising of environmental measures. Further, it allows for a more detailed regulation, implementing measures targeting areas where emissions are highest, allowing for more cost-effective initiatives on local, regional and national scale.

Spatial distribution of emissions is a key element in assessing human exposure to air pollution through the use of dispersion modelling. The quality of the spatial emission mapping is crucial for the quality, applicability and reliability of modelled air pollution levels, estimated human exposure and incurred health effects and related costs, all very important information for policymakers in decisions of implementation of environmental policies and measures. Detailed information on spatial distribution of emissions allows for a more targeted regulation, implementing measures focussing on areas where emissions are highest, allowing for more cost-effective initiatives on local, regional and national scale. The purpose of the MapEIre project, funded by Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency, is to develop a high-resolution spatial mapping of the Irish emission inventory. The work is state-of-the-art and combines a large amount of statistical data with detailed spatial information to allow for a complete spatial emission mapping on a 1 km by 1 km resolution. When comparing the results from the MapEIre project with those of the previous studies, the impact of both methodological refinements and higher spatial resolution becomes very visible. A low resolution, such as the 50 × 50 km used in the official reporting, causes important variations to be obfuscated and, if used for air quality modelling, would introduce significant uncertainty. Methodological simplifications can also have significant influence on the results, which has been illustrated in this paper using specific examples comparing the detailed MapEIre methodology with less detailed methodologies used in the previous studies. The results from MapEIre represent a significant improvement over previous methodologies and will be a strong input for future air quality modelling.