Abstract |
Emission inventories are being developed by policy makers and scientists in an effort to study emission trends. Because of the great variety of data and range of techniques used, the inventories vary considerably in their reliability and accuracy. It is difficult to compare emission estimates for different sources where widely different methodologies have been employed in their development. An inventory rating system can help to compare and evaluate inventories. The paper outlines a new emission inventory rating concept--the Data Attribute Rating System (DARS)--that has been developed by the Air and Energy Engineering Research Laboratory (AEERL) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The system was developed to rank global inventories of emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the DARS can be applied to emission inventories of any component (gases, particulates, criteria pollutants, toxics, etc.) at any scale. |