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AIR EMISSION INVENTORIES IN NORTH AMERICA: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT
Citation:
MILLER, ANDREW, G. HIDY, J. HALES, C. E. KOLB, A. S. WERNER, B. HANEKE, D. PARRISH, C. FREY, L. ROJAS-BRACHO, M. DESLAURIERS, B. PENNELL, AND D. MOBLEY. AIR EMISSION INVENTORIES IN NORTH AMERICA: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT. JOURNAL OF AIR AND WASTE MANAGEMENT. Air & Waste Management Association, Pittsburgh, PA, 56(8):1115-1129, (2006).
Impact/Purpose:
journal article
Description:
Although emission inventories are the foundation of air quality management and have supported substantial improvements in North American air quality, they have a number of shortcomings that can potentially lead to ineffective air quality management strategies. New technologies for measuring source emissions and ambient pollutant concentrations, both at the point of emissions and from remote platform, are providing novel approaches to collecting data for inventory developers. Advances in information technologies are allowing data to be shared more quickly and easily. Approaches to improving quantitative measure of inventory uncertainty allow air quality management decisions to take into account the uncertainties associated with emissions estimates, providing more accurate projections of how well alternative strategies may work. This paper discusses applications of these technologies and techniques to improve accuracy, timeliness and completeness of emission inventories across North America, and outlines a series of eight recommendations aimed at inventory developers and air quality management decision makers to improve emission inventories and enable them to support air quality management decisions for the foreseeable future.