ETC/ACM Report 2018/8: European air quality maps for 2016

The paper provides the annual update of the European air quality concentration maps and population exposure estimates for human health related indicators of pollutants PM10 (annual average, 90.4 percentile of daily means), PM2.5 (annual average), ozone (93.2 percentile of maximum daily 8-hour means, SOMO35) and NO2 (annual average), and vegetation related ozone indicators (AOT40 for vegetation and for forests) for the year 2016. The report contains also NOx annual average concentration map for 2016. The trends in exposure estimates in the period 2005-2016 for PM10 and ozone, resp. in the period 2007-2016 for PM2.5 are summarized. The analysis is based on interpolation of annual statistics of the 2016 observational data reported by EEA Member countries in 2015 and stored in the Air Quality e-reporting database. The mapping method is the Regression – Interpolation – Merging Mapping. It combines monitoring data, chemical transport model results and other supplementary data using linear regression model followed by kriging of its residuals (residual kriging). The paper presents the mapping results and gives an uncertainty analysis of the interpolated maps, including the probabilities of exceeding relevant thresholds. These maps, with their spatial exceedance and exposure estimates, are intended to be used for the assessment of European air quality by the EEA and its ETC/ACM, and for (interactive visual) public information purposes through the EEA website.

09 Sep 2019

Jan Horálek, Markéta Schreiberová, Frank de Leeuw, Pavel Kurfürst, Peter de Smet, Jana Schovánková

Prepared by:

ETC/ACM members Jan Horálek1, Markéta Schreiberová1, Frank de Leeuw2, Pavel Kurfürst1, Peter de Smet2, Jana Schovánková1
1Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI), Prague, Czech Republic;
2National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, Netherlands