LIFE EMERALD

Emissions Modelling and Forecasting of Air in Ireland

VITO is working together with the Irish Environment Protection Agency and their project partners to strengthen air quality management in Ireland to ensure effective implementation of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directives (AAQD) and to help implement the European Green Deal. 

VITO’s ATMOSYS operational mapping and forecasting system is being implemented at the EPA under the remit of the air quality monitoring department supported by their local IT operations team.  The system will consist of an operational air quality management dashboard which features the following information:

• Daily ambient air quality forecasts of PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and ozone, for up to 3 days ahead, presented as spatial maps.
• Real-time PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and ozone maps generated directly from the air quality monitoring network station data.
• Performance analysis analytics to allow assessment of the forecasting model using typical validation statistics. A more detailed assessment can be done with the underlying model software. 

The test system was established in the summer of 2022. It is currently undergoing evaluation and will gradually be transferred to the final destination servers of the EPA. 

In addition to the operational system VITO is configuring and transferring it’s ATMO-Street regional to street scale modelling system that will be used to generate concentration maps of NO2, PM10/2.5, O3 and SO2 for compliance with national and EC air quality reporting requirements.

Within the project it is being investigated how ATMO-Street could be used to assess the impact of national and local policies on air quality.  In 2023 several stakeholder-driven policy scenarios will be selected and modelled.  Focus will also be given to improving the solid fuel emissions data for better modelling of the residential emissions for supporting policy.

Capacity building will be given to the thematic air quality experts as well as the EPA’s IT operations team in setting up, maintaining, updating and trouble shooting both systems.