4. The air quality monitoring situation in Europe - State and trends

1) x means that all 5 compounds (SO2, NO2, BS/TSP, Pb, O3) are measured.

Czech Republic: The number gives the sum of local and regional monitoring sites.

Figure 4.1: Number of sites per country for the monitoring of urban/local/industrial air pollution.

Czech Republic: Sum of local and regional sites. Romania: Stations with only precipitation chem. (137) not included in the number.

Figure 4.2: Number of sites per country for the monitoring of regional air pollution (incl. wet deposition).

4.1.2. Methods evaluation

Methods have been roughly classified according to the following scheme:

• Standard techniques, conforming to the requirements set in EU directives, or considered equivalent to those.

• State-of-the-art, or advanced techniques.
  These include e.g. the DOAS technique, and diffusion tubes for NO2 , BTX etc.

• Non-standard techniques.

• Techniques not conforming to the requirements of the directives, or not considered equivalent, in terms of required accuracy and specificity.

All countries utilise standard or advanced/state-of-the-art methods for some or all of the compounds measured. Many countries in Eastern Europe still utilise non-standard methods for some of the compounds (see Chapter 3 and Appendix A for details).

Table 4.3 shows which countries have, to our knowledge, introduced in the monitoring networks the following new parameters/techniques that are candidates for being introduced soon in directives or as reference methods:

• PM10, either manual sampling or monitors

• Benzene/BTX, active methods, either manually by DOAS, or other (UK, see below).

• Passive samplers for SO2 , NO2 , BTX etc.

Regarding QA/QC procedures, no specific information to classify these has yet been collected.

Table 4.3: New compounds/techniques.

(œ): half-hourly from 1995.
1): Passive sampling during limited monitoring campaigns.
2): UK has on-line, compound-specific VOC monitoring at 9 sites.

4.1.3. Data availability

One of the main features of modern monitoring networks, besides measuring compounds with sufficient accuracy, specificity and coverage, is the ability to make the data available to users and the public soon after the measurement has taken place.

For manual methods requiring analysis in a laboratory after sampling, a typical delay time before quality controlled (or accredited) data are available has normally been at least 1-2 months. Often the delay is much longer, especially if the demand for a short delay time is not made specific.

With the more widespread use of monitors, and as monitors cover more compounds, the possibility for a widespread network giving data daily, or even with shorter delay (hourly, or near-real-time), is increasing.

It is important to differentiate between the cases where data are available in a data base to the responsible agency only, for use internally or in monitoring forecasting systems, and the cases where the data are accessible externally, e.g. for national authorities, to the EEA, to the media etc.

Table 4.4 gives an overview of the specific information we received on the data availability for each country.

According to our information, the following countries can make data from monitors available externally, in near-real-time (one-a few hours delay): Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, U.K., Norway, Cyprus.

Our information is not complete, and many countries are missing from this list, because specific information was not given. Thus, Table 4.4 should be used to give examples of how soon countries make AQ data available. Typically, validated data are available 1-6 months after measurement, varying between countries.

Table 4.4: Data availability (excl. O3 warning).

nrt : near-real-time
a : accessible for external users
na : not accessible for external users
1-a : available after 1 month delay

4.1.4. Reporting

The information collected on when data reports or summarising reports (e.g. annual reports) are available, is summarised in Table 4.5. Reporting of ozone data to the public is also included here, since there is a special requirement to this in the ozone directive.

Table 4.5: Reporting.

Annual reports are available after 2-12 months delay.

Also here, the available information is far from complete. Countries like France and German "Länder", the Czech Republic and others certainly publish annual reports within the year after the year in question, but specific information when (which month) was not given.

The examples of how countries report and visualise air quality data, shown in the annexes to the country reports in Appendix A, show how widely this differs. One of the more important observations is that many countries do not give, in their reports, the statistical AQ parameters that are required, by the EU directives. This is one of the major difficulties in comparing air quality across Europe.

4.1.5. Network description

There is a column for this in Tables 3.2 and 3.3. Network description reports are at presently available to us only from Austria, the Netherlands and Spain. For many other countries, a more brief description of sites are included in the annual reports.

4.1.6. Use of models in the air quality assessment

The following countries provided information about their use of dispersion and/or other models as part of their routine surveillance and assessment of air quality: Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, U.K (Our information about this point is so far incomplete).

4.2. Shortcomings and gaps

This report has described the very substantial effort in all the 30 European countries included, to monitor their air quality in urban and other polluted areas, as well as in regional background areas. Shortcomings or gaps in the effort, evaluated relative to requirements in EU directives, can still be detected in some cases. It must be remembered that the information available to us is not complete in all respects. Thus, we will only identify clearly visible gaps, when we are sure our information is complete.

Spatial monitoring coverage:

The spatial coverage is substantial in all countries. Gaps in coverage must be evaluated by each country themselves.

Compound average:

Some countries do not measure Pb and O3 routinely in the networks (Table 4.2).

Temporal coverage:

In Norway and Sweden, local air quality (except for ozone) is only measured during the 6 winter months.

In some Eastern European countries, all days of the year may not be covered by measurements in some networks. In Albania, for example, measurements are carried out only 7-10 days per month.

Site coverage:

In this report, the site classification urban background, traffic hot-spot, industrial hot-spot (urban or rural), and regional has been used. In many countries, all these classes are well represented, but in some countries, hot-spot monitoring sites are lacking.

Data availability:

Most countries from which we have specific information on this topic, have validated data available in their own data bases within 6 months after monitoring measurements.

Thus, there should be no problem in principle in making the data available to the EEA within 6 months into the year after.

Reporting:

It is not clear that annual reports are available from all networks/countries within one year after. Naturally the contents of the network/natural reports differ substantially between countries, and even between networks/regions in each country.

All countries/networks do not report parameters/statistics as required by the EU directives. This makes European air quality summaries and comparison incomplete.

4.3. Near-future trends

For some countries, information was given on processes to evaluate and develop the networks.

In Austria, an evaluation is underway which probably will result in a reduced number of CO sites (and to a minor extent SO2, NO2 and SPM sites), some relocation of sites, and establishing Pb and benzene networks.

In France, the regional networks are being connected to the ADEME, the national monitoring centre, and data from those connected networks will be available in near-real time.

In the UK, the Automated Urban Network is being substantially extended, and an external evaluation of the monitoring efforts is underway.

In Norway, the urban coverage is being improved, and an on-line monitoring and modelling system (AirQUIS) is being established in some cities, providing ability to model urban-scale air quality in near-real time.

In Croatia, the network is under further development, and a central information system is contemplated.

There is also a trend towards including more compounds routinely in the network. Such compounds are PM10 and benzene (or BTEX), for which new EU directives are underway. However, the PM10 monitoring going on at present is not very extensive.

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