Source apportionment to support air quality management practices
A fitness-for-purpose guide (V 4.0)
Information on the origin of pollution is an essential element of air quality management that helps identify measures to control air pollution. In this document, we review the most widely used source-apportionment (SA) methods for air quality management.
Using simple theoretical examples, we explain the differences between these methods and the circumstances where they give different results and thus possibly different conclusions for air quality management. These differences are a consequence of the assumptions that underpin each methodology and determine/limit their range of applicability. We show that ignoring these underlying assumptions is a risk for efficient/successful air quality management when the methods are used outside their scope or range of applicability.
The simplest approach based on increments, contributions obtained through receptor models or tagging approaches built in air quality models as well as potential impacts obtained via sensitivity-based methods are discussed. Particulate matter is used as a key pollutant throughout this guide as SA mostly applies to this pollutant in practice. The guide is organised in 12 sections and 5 annexes: after an introduction in section 1 and a definition of SA in section 2, the guide describes the different types of results produced by SA methods in section 3. Sections 4 and 5 deal with the linearity and non-linearity of air pollutants, the relationships between sources and receptors
and the impact of these on SA results.
CLAPPIER Alain;
THUNIS Philippe;
PIROVANO G.;
RIFFAULT V.;
GILARDONI Stefania;
PISONI Enrico;
GUERREIRO Cristina;
MONTEIRO A.;
DUPONT Harry;
WÆRSTED Eivind;
HELLEBUST Stig;
STOCKER Jenny;
ERIKSSON A.;
ANGYAL Aniko;
BONAFE Giovanni;
MONTANARI Francesco;
MATEJOVICA Jana;
BARTZIS J.G.;
GIANELLE Vorne;
2022-09-29
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC130562
978-92-76-56981-7 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 31222 EN,
OP KJ-NA-31-222-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC130562,
10.2760/781626 (online),
Additional supporting files
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