Environmental assessment of a wide area under surveillance with different air pollution sources

Campania region, Southern Italy, is a wide and critical area affected by environmental problems and characterized by different levels and sources of air pollution. The main tasks of the paper are: first, the compilation of the emission inventory of this Region, and second, the evaluation of air quality and the individuation of agglomerates and zones characterized by similar air quality levels. For the first task, the atmospheric emission inventory was performed by using a bottom-up approach, focusing at regional level instead of national; the pollutants produced from different sources were achieved through direct measures for the most important industries, while for diffused sources the emissions were estimated. Emissions from road transport sector, that are the most difficult to calculate depending on many variables, were estimated with a technique that implements the COPERT methodology. For the second task, in order to calculate the polluting concentrations and to assess the air quality state all over the Region, the analysis was carried out by using the Gaussian model ISC. The environmental zoning has assembled all communes in macro areas, revealing four reclamation zones and one observation zones, for which reorganization strategies will be necessary to the aim to catch up the established limits. This modelling approach can be considered as an important assessment tool for the local environmental authorities, because it can be applied in order to evaluate the compliance of air quality with the limit values and the influence of various emission categories on air quality.