Application of environmental information systems for air quality management

Increasing environmental awareness and serious environmental concerns in urban areas have increased the pressure to make use of modern management methodologies to deal with severe environmental problems in more densely populated areas. Air quality management has become a very important environmental issue all over the world. National and international level agreements and organisations like AWMA (Air & Waste Management Association), CAI-Asia (The Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities) or APMA (Air Pollution in the Megacities of Asia) promote and demonstrate innovative ways to improve the air quality. In European Union there are several directives implemented that set the rules of air quality assessment and improvement. Basing on these rules many zones were selected for which Air Quality Action Plans (AQAP) have to be developed. To provide decision makers with appropriate knowledge package the air quality improvement requires both professional expertise and advanced tools. ATMOTERM (R) expertly developed methodology covers the complete problem identification, from emission inventories through to impact assessment right to environmental policy development. ATMOTERM (R) is an environmental consulting and software development company that provides services to Polish and international businesses as well as to administration. The company has been,involved in a large number of air emission and air quality projects for main Polish cities and development of AQAPs. Preparation of the AQAPs is a process which can be divided into a few main steps: problem identification, emission inventory, model verification, source apportionment, "base scenario" calculations, defining and prioritizing possible options, defining AQAP. This paper provides a description of a recent AQM project carried out for Cracow region (southern Poland). Keywords air quality management, Air Quality Action Plans (AQAP), environmental information software system, emission inventory, air dispersion modelling, cost analysis and optimisation.