Tropospheric ozone impacts agricultural crop and timber production entailing significant economic effects for the sector. In the early 2000’s an indicator for calculating this impact was proposed by the expert group in the IPC-Vegetation working in support of the Air Convention. That indicator is based on the phytotoxic ozone dose above a threshold y (PODy). Within the ETC HE and its predecessor ETC/ATNI, annual production of PODy maps started in 2020. To make it more relevant for air quality assessment the ozone flux calculations are not only translated into yield losses in %, but also into yield losses expressed in terms of quantity and economic value. In this present report an impact modelling chain to quantify and monetize the loss in wheat and potato production due to tropospheric ozone exposure for 2022 has been implemented. The sensitivity of the results to the degree of spatialization of the input data was also investigated.
ETC HE Reports
The report presents interim 2023 maps for PM10 annual average, PM2.5 annual average, O3 indicator peak season average of maximum daily 8-hour means, and NO2 annual average. The maps have been produced based on the 2023 non-validated E2a (UTD) data of the AQ e-reporting database, the CAMS Ensemble Forecast modelling data and other supplementary data. Together with the concentration maps, the inter-annual differences between 5-year average 2018-2022 and 2023 are presented (using the 2018-2022 regular and the 2023 interim maps), as well as basic exposure estimates based on the interim maps.
This report highlights the escalating health risks climate change poses to children and adolescents in Europe, a population especially vulnerable due to physiological and developmental factors. Rising temperatures and extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and flooding, are already leading to severe health consequences, including increased cases of heat exhaustion, respiratory illnesses, and mental health issues like anxiety and eco-anxiety. Additionally, the spread of vector-borne diseases is widening, placing children at risk for infections previously confined to warmer regions, while air pollution and allergens are exacerbating respiratory and allergy-related conditions. Nutritional risks are also rising, as climate-related disruptions impact food security and affordability, hindering children’s physical and cognitive development. Projections indicate that today’s youth will face four times more extreme events in their lifetime, underscoring the urgent need for child-focused health and support measures. This report provides essential insights for policymakers, healthcare providers, and educators addressing climate impacts on Europe’s young populations.
The EEA has introduced the European City Air Quality Viewer, a tool to assess and compare air quality in European cities. However, this method provides an incomplete picture of air quality as it relies solely on PM2.5 data from monitoring stations, excluding cities lacking monitoring stations and other relevant pollutants such as NO2 and O3. A promising alternative to the current methodology is proposed to reduce these limitations, offering a comprehensive approach to assessing and comparing health risks linked to exposure to multiple pollutants in urban settings. Leveraging continuous air quality maps and population-weighted concentrations enhances coverage and consistency in risk estimation across cities. Additionally, it allows for ranking based on multiple pollutants, unlike the current method, which focuses solely on PM2.5 levels. This approach integrates mortality risk assessments associated with PM2.5, NO2, and O3 exposure, aligning with the Environmental Burden of Disease assessments published by the ETC HE, together with the EEA.
The aim of this report is to critically evaluate methods to assess the health risk of environmental noise for Europe and propose adaptations to the previously used methodology where necessary. Part I presents a refined methods for noise exposure assessment in Europe. Part 2 presents up-to-date exposure-response associations from an Umbrella+ review. High certainty evidence was found for effects of transportation noise on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Additional, evidence is emerging for effects on depression, dementia, overweight, cognitive impairments in adults and children and behavioural problems in children. The new body of evidence shows negative effects due to transport noise at lower levels (Lden=45 dB) than those captured in the European Environmental Noise Directive. In Part 3, proposals for disability weights and quantifying economic costs of health risks are made. The proposed changes of the health risk assessment methods reflect recent progress in noise research.
Analysis of EU Member States’ submissions received under Article 6 of Directive (EU) 2016/2284 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (NECD). These include policies and measures (PaMs) that the Member States are considering and have selected for adoption in view of fulfilling their emissions reduction commitments.
This report presents the results of the environmental burden of disease (or health risk) assessment related to air pollution in 2021. The estimates include all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality and morbidity health outcomes, with ten risk-outcome pairs considered for the cause-specific estimates. Cause-specific mortality and morbidity estimates are combined to allow assessing the overall impact on population health based on a common indicator, the disability-adjusted life year. Using estimates disaggregated by mortality and morbidity components allows for the identification of the related shares across European countries.
This report presents summarised information on the status of air quality in Europe in 2023, based on Up-To-Date data (i.e. prior to final quality control) and validated air quality monitoring data officially reported by the member and cooperating countries of the EEA. It aims at giving more timely and preliminary information on the status of ambient air quality in Europe in 2023 for five key air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2 and SO2). The report also gives a preliminary assessment of the progress towards meeting the European air quality standards for the protection of health and the World Health Organization air quality guideline levels, and compares the air quality status in 2023 with the previous years.
This report presents summarised information on the status of air quality in Europe in 2022, based on validated air quality monitoring data officially reported by the member and cooperating countries of the EEA. It aims at informing on the status of ambient air quality in Europe in 2022 and on the progress towards meeting the European air quality standards for the protection of health in the Ambient Air Quality Directives and the new World Health Organization air quality guidelines. The report also compares the air quality status in 2022 with the previous three years.
The aim of this work is to produce an updated 2017 dataset representing the number of people exposed to noise from road, rail, aircraft and industries that is comparable to 2022 reference year, both inside and outside Environmental Noise Directive’s (END) urban agglomerations in order to provide support to the EU Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’.
Green urban spaces and quiet areas play an important role for quality of life in cities. Access to green spaces and extent of quiet areas in European cities have been evaluated separately since 2018. This report combines the two indicators. It describes and applies a methodology to assess the accessibility of the population to quiet green spaces in urban agglomerations. The assessment incorporates road and air traffic noise contour maps, focusing on the Lden indicator, and utilizes data from Urban Atlas 2018.
This report aims to develop a methodology to analyse the potential impact of environmental noise at schools. This objective aligns with the END and the Zero Pollution Action Plan, which call for stronger action to reduce noise pollution.
This report presents a feasibility study to estimate the environmental burden of disease due to a set of chemicals in selected European countries for the year 2021. It contains case studies on lead, PFAS, phthalates, cadmium, pyrethroids and bisphenol A. A total of 15 risk-outcome-pairs were considered. Where possible, the aim was to calculate disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). In addition, data from the HBM4EU-project was used to ensure that exposure was estimated consistently across Europe. It was shown that a significant burden of disease can be attributed to the 6 analyzed chemicals in the selected European countries. However, despite a standardised methodological approach, the report identifies and discusses a number of limitations, particularly due to varying availability and quality of input data, which hampers the overall comparability of the results.
This report presents air quality maps for the EEA member and cooperating countries (and three microstates) for 2021, as well as the relevant exposure estimates for health related and vegetation related indicators. It also summarizes exposure estimates in the period 2005-2021. The report provides and documents background materials (maps, exposure estimates) for the European Environment Agency’s Air Quality in Europe 2023 online report.
This report presents European interim air quality maps for 2022, which are based on the non-validated up-to-date (UTD) measurement data and the CAMS Ensemble Forecast modelling results, together with other supplementary data. It contains maps of PM10 annual average, ozone indicator SOMO35 and NO2 annual average. Next to this, the report evaluates the PM2.5 annual mean interim mapping.
Trend calculations of air pollutants for the periods 2005-2021 have been applied. Sulphur dioxide shows the largest decrease of all pollutants with a concentration reduction of the order of 62-68 %. The agreement between reported emission data and measured concentrations are relatively good up to the year 2008, after which a large mismatch is observed. For NO2, a mismatch between the trend in air concentrations and NOx emissions is found. While the overall NOx emissions are reported to be reduced by 55 %, the measured NO2 data indicate a decline of the order of 38 %. For PM data (PM10 and PM2.5) we find an opposite mismatch, meaning that the PM concentrations show stronger downward trends than the reported emissions. This can be explained by the additional effect of reducing gaseous precursors of secondary PM. For O3, our findings are in line with earlier published studies noting that the annual mean ozone concentration has increased while the high peaks have been reduced. But the reduction of the peaks is now within only a few percent and non-significant.
This paper examines the creation of fine resolution maps at 100 m x 100 m resolution using statistical downscaling for the area of Prague, as a case study. This Czech city was selected due to the fine resolution proxy data available for this city. The reference downscaling methodology used is the linear regression and the interpolation of its residuals by the area-to-point kriging. Next to this, several other methods of statistical downscaling have been also executed. The results of different downscaling methods have been compared mutually and against the data from the monitoring stations of Prague, separately for urban background and traffic areas.
O3 is considered to be the most damaging common air pollutant for vegetation. The current indicator used to protect vegetation against negative impacts of O3 is the AOT40. Nevertheless, it is widely acknowledged that the impacts of O3 are more closely related to the instantaneous O3 flux or O3 dose absorbed through the stomata than to O3 exposure in the ambient air. For this reason, maps of POD1 (i.e. Phytotoxic Ozone Dose) for tree species of beech and spruce have been prepared using the methodology described in the Manual for modelling and mapping critical loads and levels of the Air Convention (CLRTAP). Subsequently, it can be concluded that the inclusion of POD for selected trees in routine mapping along with the other maps already produced is feasible.
The agricultural sector, and in particular livestock, are the main emitters of ammonia and methane in Europe. While ammonia contributes to the formation of secondary particles, methane is a greenhouse gas, a precursor of ozone and can have an indirect effect on particle concentrations. This study develops methods and provides elements of analysis on ammonia and methane emissions due to livestock farming in Europe: the geographical distribution of these emissions, the main types of farms and activities they originate from, technical measures to mitigate them, their impacts on human health and the environment.
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