Course Description

This three-day course will present a comprehensive description of the main air pollution issues, with emphasis on scientific understanding, management and planning, computer modelling, and forecasting. Air pollution problems and adverse effects will be discussed at the local, regional, continental, and global scale.

On the first day, Dr. Paolo Zannetti will introduce the main issues related to air pollution, covering: historical perspectives, a review of air pollution levels throughout the world, the role and importance of laws and regulations, and the engineering challenge of achieving substantial reduction in air pollution levels by emission controls and new technologies. Moreover, the current scientific understanding of air pollution phenomena will be examined, with discussion about the physical laws (e.g., atmospheric turbulence) and chemical transformations (e.g., photochemical smog and secondary aerosols). The discussion on the first day will include a description of air quality management practices and regulations in the US and Europe. We will conclude with a discussion on the objective quantification of the adverse effects of air pollution (e.g., the impact on human health) and the available formulations used for assessing adverse effects and optimizing emission controls in order to achieve maximum benefits.

On the second day, we will discuss the issue of emergency preparedness and emergency response. We will also present the available software to be used for simulating air pollution and its adverse impacts, together with air quality management software. In the afternoon, Dr. Luca Delle Monache will focus on air quality real-time predictions. First an introduction on state-of-the-science capabilities will be given, followed by a review of the activities of the main operational centres around the world. Then a detailed analysis of current deterministic and probabilistic predictions systems will be presented, including an overview on advanced verification techniques. Then, the topic of chemical data assimilation will be illustrated in depth, with examples of both variational and ensemble-based approaches. Finally, postprocessing and calibration techniques specifically designed for air quality predictions will be presented.

On the third day, we will have practical exercises, examples, and case studies, including the analysis of actual episodes of accidental releases of plumes from fires and industrial accidents. In the afternoon, Dr. Frank Freedman will present a state-of-the-art discussion on global issues and climate change. His presentation will include a description of the global circulation models used to simulate the global effects of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.

 Course Objectives

Participants will learn the most up-to-date techniques for studying and managing air pollution projects, for both industrial and urban emissions, including risk management projects, emergency scenarios, real-time prediction applications, and global issues.