Author(s)

J.-P. Chang & G. Gaborit

Abstract

The road transport sector is one of the main sources of air emissions for most European countries, with multiple impacts on the environment on different spatial and temporal scales. With regard to the related needs of air emission inventories at different spatial scales, the question of consistency between local, regional and national inventories is to be pointed out, i.e. consistency between bottom-up (micro scale) approaches and top-down (macro scale) approaches. An overview of discrepancies between both approaches enables us to understand the possible problems of consistency between them. Principles for improving consistency of spatial inventories are proposed, i.e. complementary use of both approaches and multi-scale constraint principles. In particular, in the frame of the MeditAiraneo project, including the Mediterranean countries and supported by the Italian environment protection agency (APAT), a methodology for top-down emission inventories has been developed for road transport, based on these two principles. Within a top-down strategy, this multi-scale constraint principle consists of a top-level constraint (e.g. national emissions as absolute references) and of a local/meso level constraints, with possible available local/meso data to be used as a reference for calibration or consolidation of the spatial disaggregation process. Keywords: air emissions, spatial inventory, road transport, top-down/bottom-up approaches, methodology. 1 Introduction The road transport sector is one of main sources of air emissions regarding substances such as NOx, NMVOCs, CO and CO2, for most European countries.

Keywords

air emissions, spatial inventory, road transport, top-down/bottom-up approaches, methodology.