Air pollution is the first environmental cause of premature motility and morbidity. In spite of the EU’s success in decreasing urban pollution, the Environmental European Agency reports that, in 2023, 92% of the urban population was exposed to levels of fine particulate matter (PM) above the WHO Guidelines, and 239,000 premature deaths in the EU-27 were attributed to exposure to PM2.5 above this target.The marked decrease of urban pollution in EU made more challenging further abating levels of pollutants to close the gaps with the WHO Guidelines, and reach compliance of the new Ambient Air Quality (AQ) Directive (EU) 2024/2881 (NAQD) in 2030. Thus, an advanced AQ monitoring is required to better assess policy actions.
RI-URBANS responds to the need to substantially reduce air pollution across in the EU. The main objective is to demonstrate how Service Tools (STs) from atmospheric Research Infrastructures (RIs) can be adapted and enhanced to better address these challenges in European cities and industrial, harbour, airport and road traffic AQ hotspots. We develop and enhance synergies between AQ Monitoring Networks (AQMNs) and RIs to implement AQ observations in support of an advanced policy assessment. The project combined state-of-the-art scientific knowledge and innovative technical/scientific work to develop STs. RI-URBANS also deploys tools and information systems in the hands of citizens and communities to support decision-making by AQ managers and regulators.
The focus is on outdoor ambient nano- (or ultrafine-) particles (UFP, in number concentration and size distribution, PNSD), black carbon (BC), ammonia (NH3), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and PM (in mass concentration) in terms of their sizes and constituents, as well as their source contributions, gaseous precursors, and oxidative potential (OP). RI-URBANS evaluated the advanced AQ parameters/pollutants (AAQPs) and source contributions, and their associated health effects, to demonstrate the European added value of implementing these observations. The project addressed all aspects of sustainability, including efficient curation, preservation and provision of access to data, training and capacity building, and how the use of tools will be secured in the future. The implementation of 5 pilots involving 12 cities was used to demonstrate the ability to integrate complementary measurement systems and methods, as well as data quality control, managing and communication. RI-URBANS strongly relies on the expertise of AQMNs, AQ experts and the European RIs ACTRIS and IAGOS to apply existing methodologies to the urban areas, developing new suited STs, enhancing the synergies with AQMNs through knowledge transfer and offering a sustainable framework for providing dedicated and focused urban STs.
To reach these objectives, RI-URBANS builds upon 4 major strategic pillars (SP):
● SP1 compiles available RIs and AQMNs advanced observations, tools and protocols; evaluates the datasets and operational conditions, new monitoring and modelling tools; and develops STs in work packages (WPs) 1-3 to be demonstrated in SP2 and upscaled in SP3.
● SP2 (WP4) demonstrates the sustainable and interoperable implementation of STs developed in SP1. Here, 5 pilot concepts are implemented with the participation of the RIs and AQMNs from Athens, Barcelona, Birmingham, Bucharest, Milan-Bologna, Paris, Rotterdam-Amsterdam, Helsinki and Zurich.
● SP3 proposes the roadmap for upscaling the implementation (by RIs-AQMNs) of the STs and data management (WP5) provided by SP1 and demonstrated by SP2, as well as the transfer of these to stakeholders (WP6).
● SP4 includes the support actions on communication, exploitation, dissemination, management and coordination (WP7-8).
RI-URBANS intensively interacted with AQ stakeholders and contributed to the elaboration and implementation of the above measurements in the NAQD concerning the creation and implementation of a EU network of AQ supersites to provide these measurements (Art 10 and Annex VII).
ation and implementation of a EU network of AQ supersites to provide these measurements (Art 10 and Annex VII).
