3. Summary of monitoring practices in Europe

3.1. Summary on European scale of country-wise monitoring programmes

Based upon the national summaries in Appendix A and the network/site information in Appendix B, a summary is presented here on the monitoring practices in each country.

The summarised description/evaluation of the monitoring practices in each country is given in Table 3.2. and Table 3.3, for local and regional monitoring respectively.

Blank space in the tables reflect that specific data on the item was not available to the Topic centre.

The information in these tables is very brief. It is intended to provide the itemised, condensed information necessary to enable an overall summary evaluation to be made of the current monitoring practices, and to be evaluated against EU and national requirements.

An explanation of the codes in the tables is given in Table 3.1.

Countries are categorised as EU member states, countries of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), and other countries. Within each category, the countries are listed alphabetically.

Tables 3.2 and 3.3 enables a European overview of the monitoring situation. To expand somewhat on the information, a condensed description for each country is given in the text following the tables (Section 3.2).

The summary tables show that the information available is fairly complete for many countries regarding monitoring coverage and methods. However, as far as data availability, reporting and site descriptions is concerned, the information which was available to the Topic Centre is lacking for most countries, making a full evaluation of the state on the European scale incomplete.

The state of the monitoring situation in Europe is evaluated in Chapter 4.

Table 3.1: Explanation of codes in Tables 3.2 and 3.3.

Regional

SO2 +: S and N compounds in air, include. major ions in SPM, Black smoke
Dep. : Deposition of S and N
O3: O3
O3-pre.: NOx, VOC (O3 precursors)

Spatial coverage:

Urban/local

No. of cities/No. of non-urban hot-spot areas

Regional

No. of sites

Site category coverage:

Urban/Local

UG: Urban general
UT: Urban traffic hot spot
UI: Urban industrial hot spot
RI: Rural industrial hot spot

Regional

SO2 +: S and N in air, and Black smoke
Dep. : Deposition, acid
O3: Ozone
O3 pre: Ozone pre cursors (NOx, VOC)

The tables give number of sites in each category.

Temporal coverage:

Year round
Other

Methods evaluation:

1. Advanced
2. According to directives or equivalent
3. Non-standard

Data availability:

Non-validated data in near real time

nrt-a: Near real time (1h data) in central database, accessible4)
nrt-na: Near real time (1h data) in central database, not accessible

Validated data

x-a: Available on data-file, accessible on electronic medium, after (x) months
x-na: Available on data file, not accessible on electronic medium, after (x) months.

Reporting:

O3: Smog information available to the public
Other: After (x) months after calendar year

Network/site description:

Available
Not available

1) To categorise the compounds in Urban monitoring, codes are used which refer to the compounds which are listed in the various directives and EoI decision (CSD, FWD, EoI). For Regional monitoring, it is instead referred to the following monitoring categories: S and N compounds and BS in air (called SO2+), S and N compounds in deposition (called Dep), ozone (O3) and ozone precursors (O3-pre).

2) x in the tables means that all CSD components are covered.

3) In the tables are listed the compounds which are monitored.

4) Accessible: means accessible through data-lines to (selected) external users.

Table 3.2: Summary of monitoring practices, local air pollution (urban, traffic, industrial).
(Codes/explanation to table). (Open space means info not available).

1) SO2 : Total acidity

2) Urban (G + T + I)

3) UG + UT

4) Except Pb.

5) Urban Industrial + Rural Industrial

6) The available info. from Italy was not complete enough to allow a full summary to be made here.

7) Incl. industrial areas

8) total no. of sites included

Table 3.2 (contd.)
(Codes/explanation to table)

1) UI + RI 2) In summer, by public broadcast. The same procedure for SO2 in winter.

Table 3.2 (contd.):

(

Codes/explanation to table

)

1) One stationary and one mobile site in each city. Not known how many urban background or hot-spot sites.
2) 7-10 days per month.
3) Covering large towns, industrial hot-spots, health resorts.
4) Covering towns and industrial basins.
5) Including PM10.
6) Total no. of sites: ~650 (urban + rural). The automatic network has 37 urban sites and 37 rural/regional sites. The impression is that the networks cover all major polluted areas, including industrial hot-spots. The extent of monitoring at traffic hot-spots is not clear.
7) 8 sites in Budapest. Number of cities, and site classification, is unknown.
8) All cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants. In addition, at least 8 local networks around local industries, with 33 sites.
9) Incl. possible traffic hot-spots sites.
10) Sites in local networks, incl. cities, towns and industrial areas. 25 sites in Bucuresti.
11) Daily information to public through mass media may be given.

Table 3.2 (contd.)
(Codes/explanation to table)

1) The classification of the sites is not given.

2) Daily data are available to the public from the 8 sites in the ANAS system.

3) 12 passive SO2 , 102 passive NO2 and 41 dustfall sites come in addition.

Table 3.3: Summary of monitoring practices, regional air pollution.
(Codes/explanation to table)

1) SO2 : Total acidity.

2) Only SO2 and SO4.

3) National network.

4) Total number of "regional" sites.

5) The available info from Italy was not complete enough to allow a summary to be made here. This summary only includes the 3 EMEP stations. There may be several more regional rural sites in Italy.

6) Data is available at EMEP-CCC monthly from Ispra, and with a delay of 6-12 months from the other 2 sites.

Table 3.3 (contd.)
(Codes/explanation to table)

1) 6 GEMS, 4 EMEP, 1 HELCOM.
2) 3 EMEP and 1 GAW site.