On the CH4 and N2O emission inventory compiled by EDGAR and improved with the EPRTR data for the INGOS project

This report documents the EDGAR INGOS emission inventory for CH4 and N2O, as publicly made available on: http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ingos/index.php?SECURE=123. The EDGAR INGOS CH4 and N2O emission inventory provides bottom‐up estimates of global anthropogenic CH4 and N2O emissions for the period 2000‐2010. The EDGAR InGOS product is an update of the EDGARv4.2FT2010 inventory, taking into account emissions reported as point sources by facilities under the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (EPRTR) for (1) power plants (N2O), (2) oil refineries (CH4 and N2O), (3) coal mining (CH4), (4) production of oil and gas (CH4), (5) chemicals production (inorganic, nitro‐fertilizers and other bulk chemicals) (N2O), industrial process and product use (N2O), (6) solid waste ‐ landfills (CH4), (7) industrial wastewater treatment (CH4 and N2O). In a first step gridmaps have been improved for the European region taking into account the geospatial data of the E‐PRTR database. In addition, for the last 4 years an option is given to select inventories solely based on officially reported emission data (for the categories covered by E‐PRTR), gapfilled with EDGARv4.2FT2010 for non‐reporting countries.JRC.H.2-Air and Climat

Preliminary exploratory impact assessment of short-lived pollutants over the Danube Basin

This report is presented as deliverable D2.3 of work package 2 of the Danube Air Nexus. It presents the results of an exploratory impact assessment of short-lived air pollutant emissions on human health, crop production and near-term climate with a focus on the Danube basin. We use a global reduced-form source receptor air quality model TM5-FASST and a recent global pollutant emission inventory (HTAP V2, 2014) to make an attribution by sector of the various impacts and to explore the challenges and opportunities for possible. Preliminary results show that trans-boundary pollution is significantly contributing to population exposure to PM2.5 in the Danube area. Dominating polluting sectors are residential sector and agriculture. We estimate that annually 170000 premature mortalities can be attributed to PM2.5 pollution in the Danube area, and annual crop losses add up to an economic value of nearly 1 billion US$. This analysis is a first step in a more detailed, country-wise analysis that will be carried out as a follow-up of this report, with an improved version of the model and specifically designed scenarios for the Danube Basin.JRC.H.2-Air and Climat

An approach with a Business-as-Usual scenario projection to 2020 for the Covenant of Mayors from the Eastern Partnership

The methodology for the Covenant of Mayors – East needed to be extended with a business-as-usual projection of the emissions for 2020, from which national coefficients for the previous years are derived. In this way, signatories will be able to do their emission inventories of the present situation, and estimate which their emissions in 2020 will be. Then they will commit to an emission reduction target based on their projections of emissions for 2020 following the business-as-usual scenario. The factors are country-specific, calculated both for CO2 and CO2eq (CO2, CH4, N2O using the GWP100metric) in order to allow signatories to choose the approach they prefer. Moreover an urban dimension is provided, providing a margin on the projections.JRC.H.2-Air and Climat

Analysis of Air Pollutant Emission Scenarios for the Danube region: Benefits of modal shifts in transport, climate mitigation and climate-efficient air pollution mitigation in the Danube region

This report investigates air quality, health and crop production impacts in the Danube region for two types of air pollutant emission scenarios: 1. A modal shift in freight transport scenarios for inland waterways and road modes only, which includes a reference scenario and a scenario in which we increase the inland waterways freight transport in the Danube region by 20%; this is complemented by a fictitious modal shift scenario in which 50% of the road freight transport is assumed to shift to inland waterways. The pollutant emissions for these scenarios are based on JRC’s global pollutant and greenhouse gas emission database EDGAR. 2. Climate mitigation scenarios, developed in a framework of identifying climate-efficient air quality controls with optimal climate benefits at a global scale focusing on the impact of shorter-lived pollutants which directly or indirectly influence the climate. The pollutant emissions for the latter scenarios are available as a public dataset from the FP5 ECLIPSE research project. For both analyses, the pollutant emission scenarios are analysed with JRC’s global reduced-form air quality model TM5-FASST, which provides pollutant concentrations and their associated impacts on human health and agricultural crop production losses. The modal shift scenario analysis indicates that a 20% increase of present day inland waterway transport (without a modification in road freight transport) has a negligible impact on air quality in the Danube countries. One extreme scenario case whereby road freight transport is assumed to use modern, low-emission trucks, 50% of which moves to waterway transport with current cargo ships, leads to a net deterioration of air quality with potentially an increase of annual premature mortalities in the Danube region with about 300. The opposite extreme case, assuming the 50% road freight shift to waterways is exclusively with old-type high-emission heavy duty vehicles, leads to a net effect of the same magnitude but opposite sign, i.e. a net improvement of air quality with a decrease in annual premature mortalities of about 300. The analysis of the ECLIPSE climate mitigation scenarios (both greenhouse gases and short-lived pollutants) focusing on the Danube basin region suggests a maximum potential decrease in annual air pollution-induced mortalities, relative to a current air quality legislation scenario without climate mitigation of 40000 by 2050. The corresponding reduction in crop losses in the area is estimated to be a combined total of 3.7 MTonnes/year in 2050 for wheat, maize, rice and soy beans.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

Impact evaluation of biomass used in small combustion activities sector on air emissions: Analyses of emissions from Alpine, Adriatic-Ionian and Danube EU macro-regions by using the EDGAR emissions inventory

The emissions from small stationary combustion activities sector, in particular from the energy needs for residential buildings, have significant shares in total emissions of EU28. Therefore, measures to mitigate the emissions from this less regulated sector related to implementation checking are needed. In this study, we analysed the changes in fuel mix for this sector over 1990-2012 period, the emissions and their distribution over the areas covered by European Union Strategy for Alpine macro-region (EUSALP), European Union Strategy for Adriatic and Ionian macro-region (EUSAIR) and European Union Strategy for Danube macro-region (EUSDR). The emissions gridmaps of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon (BC) and benzo(a)pyren (BaP) are presented for the year 2010; in specific circumstances, these pollutants are known to produce negative effects on health. For this research, we used the data and information of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) versions v4.3.2 and v4.tox3. Accurate emissions estimates are important to evaluate the impacts of fuel combustion in small stationary combustion activities sector on air quality, human health and crops. Inventories of GHGs, air pollutants and toxic pollutants included in EDGAR are developed by using, as input, fuel consumption from IEA (2014) and emissions factors from scientific literature and official guidebooks such as EMEP/EEA (2013). Working together with emissions inventory experts from selected countries in these macro-regions, the effects of improvements of fuel consumption statistics, biomass in particular, on emissions in the latest years have been quantified by comparing EDGAR data with national data. Besides sectorial emissions estimation, the emissions distribution is also important in the inventory development process. In order to distribute emissions consistently for all countries included in Alpine, Adriatic-Ionian and Danube macro-regions, the EDGAR team upgraded the WEB-based gridding tool with a module for small stationary combustion activities. Emissions estimation and distribution are key elements in preparing a complete input for chemical transport models and further evaluate the impacts of these emissions on air quality, health and crops. This report aims to provide the policy makers and scientists insights on the representativeness and uncertainty of local emissions from the residential sector that play an important role on air quality. These datasets can be used as input for the atmospheric chemical transport models for air pollutants and can illustrate the importance of emission inventory uncertainties and discrepancies.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

The impact of a modal shift in transport on emissions to the atmosphere: Methodology development for the best use of the available information and expertise in the Danube Region.

A modal shift in transport can represent a promising option where the economic added value is demonstrated. However, the impact of this action on the environment is important as well. In the framework of the JRC scientific support to the Danube Strategy, the EDGAR modal shift initiative focuses on the emissions evaluation for ex-post modal shift scenarios, as a contribution to the Danube Air Nexus. Given the complexity of this topic, a methodology for the best use of the available information and expertise in the Danube Region has been developed and is presented in this report. This work is the outcome of the joint efforts of the JRC/EDGAR team, country emission experts and relevant institutions in the Danube Region. It shows that, in addition to the EDGAR data and gridding tool, the participation by and contributions of experts from the Danube Region is essential in compiling emissions from the transport sector and enriching knowledge of variations in national circumstances, on inland domestic and international shipping and by bringing details of ship and truck freight transport. Considering the transboundary characteristics of the transport sector, the EDGAR team developed a Web-based emissions gridding tool (EDGAR.ms) to be used by experts, institutions and authorities in the region to distribute emissions from road transport sector in a consistent manner. Emission experts from four countries (Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Croatia) tested the EDGAR.ms tool with their national data and this user friendly application is now available to all country emission experts in the Danube Region (upon request). Regarding navigation, the contribution of Viadonau and Danube Commission is essential to evaluate ship emissions. It is appreciated that, this scientific network, which includes both EU and Non-EU countries, has the capability to explore and evaluate emissions changes from a modal shift in transport and to identify the advantages and drawbacks related to emission patterns changes but to be fully comprehensive, this undertaking requires participation/contribution from specialized institutions in the region and country emission experts from the entire Danube Region.JRC.H.2 - Air and Climat

ExpO:Towards Explaining Ontology-Driven Conceptual Models

Ontology-driven conceptual models play an explanatory role in complex and critical domains. However, since those models may consist of a large number of elements, including concepts, relations and sub-diagrams, their reuse or adaptation requires significant efforts. While conceptual model engineers tend to be biased against the removal of information from the models, general users struggle to fully understand them. The paper describes ExpO-a prototype that addresses this trade-off by providing three components: (1) an API that implements model transformations , (2) a software plugin aimed at modelers working with the language OntoUML, and (3) a web application for model exploration mostly designed for domain experts. We describe characteristics of every component and specify scenarios of possible usages

Fossil CO2 and GHG emissions of all world countries

The Paris Agreement plans global stocktakes, to which the UNFCCC GHG emission inventories are the primary input. To complete this picture, the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research provides for all world countries emission timeseries from 1970 until 2016 for CO2 and until 2012 for the other GHGs.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

What Do Users Think About Abstractions of Ontology-Driven Conceptual Models?

In a previous paper, we proposed an algorithm for ontology-driven conceptual model abstractions [18]. We have implemented and tested this algorithm over a FAIR Catalog of such models represented in the OntoUML language. This provided evidence for the correctness of the algorithm’s implementation, i.e., that it correctly implements the model transformation rules prescribed by the algorithm, and its effectiveness, i.e., it is able to achieve high compression (summarization) rates over these models. However, in addition to these properties, it is fundamental to test the validity of this algorithm, i.e., that it achieves what it is intended to do, namely provide summarizing abstractions over these models whilst preserving the gist of the conceptualization being represented. We performed three user studies to evaluate the usefulness of the resulting abstractions as perceived by modelers. This paper reports on the findings of these user studies and reflects on how they can be exploited to improve the existing algorithm.</p

Towards Pragmatic Explanations for Domain Ontologies

Ontologies have gained popularity in a wide range of research fields, in the domains where possible interpretations of terms have to be narrowed and there is a need for explicit inter-relations of concepts. Although reusability has always been claimed as one of the main characteristics of ontologies, it has been shown that reusing domain ontologies is not a common practice. Perhaps this is due to the fact that despite a large number of works towards complexity management of ontologies, popular systems do not incorporate enough functionality for ontology explanation. We analyse the state of the art and substantiate a minimal functionality that the system should provide in order to make domain ontologies better understandable for their users.</p