Atmospheric dispersion modelling with AERMOD for comparative impact assessment of different pollutant emission sources in an Alpine valley

Tomasi, Elena; Antonacci, Gianluca; Giovannini, Lorenzo; Zardi, Dino; Ragazzi, Marco

doi:10.2495/air150371

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…A regulatory strategy for the emission control of hexavalent chromium from waste-toenergy plants [33] Atmospheric dispersion modeling PCDD/F environmental impact from municipal solid waste bio-drying plant [34] Atmospheric dispersion modelling with AERMOD for comparative impact assessment of different pollutant emission sources in an alpine valley [35] Assessing the air quality impact of nitrogen oxides and benzene from road traffic and domestic heating and the associated cancer risk in an urban area of Verona (Italy) [36] Ionescu et al, 2012 [19] summarize the pros and cons of different waste management treatments connected by integrated waste management schemes in terms of emissions of air pollutants. The best combination must be evaluated case by case, since atmospheric dispersion can strongly influence the expected impacts at ground level.…”

Section: Methodologies To Define New Regulatory Limit Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another study focused more deeply on the atmospheric dispersion of air pollutants in an Alpine valley close to Trentino [35], revealing the complexity behind numerical simulations in areas characterized by multiple emission sources of different types (e.g., point, line and area sources). In the specific case of this study, the authors observed the major role of road traffic in determining the total NO2 ambient air concentrations in the valley.…”

Section: Atmospheric Dispersion Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Criteria for the Assessment of Health Risk from a Waste Gasification Plant

Tubino,

Ragazzi,

Adami

et al. 2023

Environmental and Climate Technologies

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In mountainous regions, the atmospheric dispersion of air pollutants is limited by complex terrain morphology. Trentino (a province located in the Italian Alps) is characterized by a high population density, highly developed agriculture and farming, and the presence of civil and industrial activities, whose emissions tend to be trapped inside the valleys. These conditions translate into exposure levels that are potentially higher than other geographical contexts (e.g., flat or coastal regions). The academic research carried out in Trentino since 2005 has produced a series of publications on topics related to the risk for health derived from waste management and other activities. These publications has focused on: 1) the evaluation of the emissions of organic pollutants from the waste sector; 2) the monitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in various environmental matrices; 3) a methodology to carry out a comprehensive health risk assessment considering all the relevant exposure routes in an area; 4) the role of the local diet in the exposure of a population to POPs; 5) methodologies to define new regulatory limit values for dioxin and hexavalent chromium; and 6) the role of dispersion modeling in assessing the exposure to air pollutants. The present paper will review these publications and provide a reference document to evaluate new project proposals that require a health risk assessment and facilitate the work of proponents, clarifying the requirements of a health risk assessment. The paper will refer to waste gasification, but the considerations expressed in this paper may apply to other activities.

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Section: Methodologies To Define New Regulatory Limit Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Atmospheric Dispersion Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criteria for the Assessment of Health Risk from a Waste Gasification Plant

Tubino,

Ragazzi,

Adami

et al. 2023

Environmental and Climate Technologies

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“…Roads are usually treated as linear sources in dispersion modelling, thus by approximation to polylines in GIS environments. If aggregate emission factors are available, some activities are conveniently modelled as area sources, due to their ubiquity [17]. This is the case, for instance, of small industries and diffuse sources (e.g., de-centralised domestic heating), which could be approximated to polygons.…”

Section: Data Collection and Emission Calculationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Methodology for the Management of Human Exposure to Air Pollutants

Schiavon

Rada

Adami

et al. 2019

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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The assessment of the impacts of future civil/industrial plants on air quality is traditionally based on the environmental assessment procedure, which, however, may lead to different conclusions depending on the choice of the target area and the emission sources already present, and may underestimate the global impacts on health, society and economy. The paper proposes an organic multi-step methodology to carry out health risk assessments on a target area, to assess the incidence of emissive activities under evaluation for authorisation, and, as an additional matter of novelty, to study mitigation/compensation measures to take their future impacts back to acceptable levels, if their contributions are expected to exceed acceptable risk parameters. Criteria for the definition of target areas, emission calculation, dispersion modelling, the health risk assessment procedure, the verification of the risk acceptability and the compensation approach are described in detail. The current potential limitations of the approach are discussed and solutions to overcome such weak points are proposed. In view of a sustainable integration of new activities within local contexts, this methodology aims at guiding decision makers to carry out the screening of projects in terms of health impacts, according to a standardised approach.

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“…The Alpine region is a mountainous area shared by several European nations (Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Liechtenstein and Germany) that is characterised by peculiar climate and meteorological conditions [1,2] and that has developed a strong tourist vocation over the last decades [3][4][5]. The presence of numerous valleys, differently oriented, creates local conditions of wind circulation, atmospheric stability, solar heating and mean daily/monthly cycles of temperature, which concur to create specific situations for the dispersion of air pollutants in the atmosphere and, consequently, air quality conditions that may be critical to residents [6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potentials of the waste-to-energy sector for an unconventional district heating system

Ragazzi¹,

Ferrari²,

Adami³

et al. 2019

Int. J. EQ

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In spite of being a process that exploits a renewable source of energy, the combustion of wood-based biomass contributes to deteriorate outdoor and indoor air quality. Critical situations for human exposure may occur in mountainous areas, where wood-based biomass is usually abundant and the complex morphology may favour the stagnation of air pollutants in valleys. Replacing wood/pellet stoves with centralised systems would reduce the impact, but the construction of district heating systems may not be convenient in areas with low density of houses. A possible solution could rely on direct electrical heating (DEH) systems, preferably fed by thermochemical processes that help achieve environmental goals for the local community, like the reduction of waste landfilling and the valorisation of the energy content of waste. This paper aims at presenting a comparison between the impacts expected by household wood/pellet stoves and by a modern waste-to-energy (WtE) plant, in terms of emissions of air pollutants into the atmosphere, when replacing wood stoves with a DEH system fed by the electric energy generated by the WtE plant. The comparison shows that the replacement of household stoves with an equivalent DEH system would be beneficial in terms of impacts on the local air quality. Such an approach could be considered to reduce the health impacts from biomass burning in critical areas like the Alpine region.

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Atmospheric dispersion modelling with AERMOD for comparative impact assessment of different pollutant emission sources in an Alpine valley

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

Criteria for the Assessment of Health Risk from a Waste Gasification Plant

Criteria for the Assessment of Health Risk from a Waste Gasification Plant

Integrated Methodology for the Management of Human Exposure to Air Pollutants

Potentials of the waste-to-energy sector for an unconventional district heating system

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