Appraisal of pollutant emissions and air quality state in a critical Italian region: Methods and results

This article presents a methodology for the environmental zoning of the territory that was adopted for Campania (Italy), a region characterized by a high level spotted air contamination. The focus of this study consists in the estimation of the total emissions and in the appraisal of the relevant air quality state in this Region for the main air pollutants: CO, VOC, NOX, and PM10. In this study, the atmospheric emission inventory was executed by using a bottom-up approach, focusing at regional level instead of national and then including local parameters; the amounts of pollutants emitted from various sources in this Region were obtained through direct measures for the principal industrial systems, while for diffused sources the emissions were estimated on the basis of opportune activity indicators and fixed emission factors concerning specific emissive activities. Emissions from road transport sector that are the hardest to estimate because they depend on many variables were estimated with a procedure that implements the COPERT methodology. The appraisal of the air quality to local scale (and the successive environmental zoning) was carried by integrating the data of emission inventory with elaborations of a Gaussian dispersion model, in order to calculate the polluting concentrations all over the regional territory. The results obtained in this study are essential also in order to set up possible remediation plans in similar areas characterized by nonattainment of the limits established by legislation.