A contribution to air quality management in urban industrialized areas

Despite the increasing concern given to air quality in urban and industrial areas in recent years, particular emphasis on regulation, control and reduction of air pollutant emissions is still necessary to fully characterize the chain emissions air quality - exposure - dose - health effects, for specific sources. In this context, INSPIRAR, a research project started in 2010, was designed to develop a multidisciplinary methodology for air quality, exposure and population health impacts assessment, of industrial pollutants emissions in an industrialized urban area. The Estarreja region was selected as a study case because it has one of the largest chemical industrial complexes in Portugal that has been recently expanded with an increase of its production capacity. This work presents an overview of the first air quality assessment for the region, based on emission inventories and monitoring data. This assessment includes an analysis of trends and the identification and characterization of past air pollution episodes according to the new Air Quality Framework Directive. The contribution of different sources and meteorological conditions to these episodes is investigated. Results show that the most problematic pollutants are ozone and PM10. The advection of contaminated air masses from neighbour regions and adverse weather conditions associated with local emissions, namely industrial activity and road traffic, are the major contributors to air quality degradation in the study region.