Harmonisation... Related activities and tools

Related activities and tools

Below follows a list of some activities which are somehow related to the initiative on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes.

An overview of activites related to this initiative is provided in a paper from May 2001: Ten years of Harmonisation activities: Past, present and future.

• Wiki on Atmospheric Dispersion (http://atmosphericdispersion.wikia.com).
  A Wiki is a website that is especially suited for collaboration. The purpose of this Wiki is to facilitate pooling of experiences within the modelling community. The Wiki has been subject for discussion at several of the conferences on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes. Read here about the motivation for the Wiki.
• E-mail discussion list: AtmosphericDispersion   This is an e-mail list for discussion on atmospheric dispersion. It is intended as a forum where people working in the field of atmospheric dispersion can exchange experiences.
  The list is open for announcements, questions and discussions. Information on how to subscribe to the list etc. can be found on its home page, http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/atmosphericdispersion.html .
• FAIRMODE is a modellers' network established in 2008 in support of the new EU Air Quality Directive. Its activities are in line with those of the Harmonisation... initiative. FAIRMODE is a joint initiative of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).
• Model Documentation System. The European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC/ACC) under the European Environment Agency maintains a web-based catalogue of atmospheric dispersion models.
• COST 710. An international action on "Harmonization in the preprocessing of meteorological data for dispersion models" (COST 710) has taken place in the framework of COST (1994-1997). A final report is available.
• COST 715. An international action "Meteorology applied to Urban Air Pollution Problems" acted as a follow-up to COST 710 and ended in 2004. It aimed at increasing knowledge of, and accessibility to, the main meteorological parameters which determine urban pollution levels.
• COST 732. An international action "Quality Assurance and Improvement of Micro-Scale Meteorological Models" started in 2005. Its objective is to improve and assure the quality of micro-scale meteorological models that are applied for predicting flow and transport processes in urban or industrial environments.
• Datasets for Atmospheric Modelling.. A web site providing information on and access to experimental data sets relevant for dispersion modellers was announced by Galmarini et al. in their paper: "DAM: Datasets for atmospheric modelling" for the 7the Harmonisation conference in Belgirate, 2001. Presently, more than 100 data sets are catalogued. The scientific community is encouraged to use this site and to provide updated information for it. See http://rem.jrc.cec.eu.int/dam
• COST 615. Four international actions on "Science and research for better air in European cities" (COST CITAIR) have taken place in the framework of COST in the mid-1990's. One of the actions was COST 615: "Database, Monitoring and Modelling of Urban Air Pollution". This action has resulted in inventories of databases, projects and models.
• Model intercomparison tool: Protocol and data archive:   In the UK, a tool for model intercomparison has been developed and used for an intercomparsion study of the three models AERMOD, ADMS and ISC. The tool can be used for other models as well. Please note that the tool allows model intercomparison, but not model evaluation (there is no comparison with actual measurements).
  The tool has its value because it allows a systematic intercomparison of model behaviour under varying conditions with respect to meteorology, source configuration and topography. A limitation of any tool like the present is that it cannot identify whether one model is better than another, because it does not include concentration measurements.

The above links are the most central in relation to the work of the initiative. However, several other links of high relevance deserve to be mentioned:

• SATURN - Studying Atmospheric Pollution in Urban Areas. Subproject of EUROTRAC-2.
• TRAPOS Optimisation of Modelling Methods for Traffic Pollution in Streets
• EURASAP (European Association for the Science of Air Pollution)
• SCRAM (Support Center for Regulatory Air Quality Models) of the US EPA.
• Urban climate e-mail list.
• ERCOFTAC (European Research Community On Flow Turbulence And Combustion).
• Excellent, comprehensive link page: Mindaugas Zickus has created a very comprehensive overview of air pollution links.