Quality Management System, AirQUIS

The Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) has developed a GIS based integrated management system, AirQUIS, which includes a user interface, comprehensive measurement and emission inventory databases and a suite of models for use in simulating ambient air concentrations and exposure. This paper presents the AirQUIS module for emission inventorying and its use for air quality assessment, modelling and management on urban/agglomeration scale. This tool contains the necessary functionalities for producing a complete, detailed bottom-up atmospheric emissions inventory. Excel based templates have been developed for source and emission data collection, which can be directly imported into AirQUIS database. The emission information in the database is directly accessed by the emission model, which generates the necessary spatial and temporal emission data to be used by the dispersion-model. The emission inventory tool organizes the emission data by three types of source: point, area and line. Emission data are distributed temporally using time variation factors on the average annual emissions. The emission inventory tool is used to assess the contributions from individual sources, source categories and geographical areas. The GIS platform is used for the visualisation, presentation, update and management of the emission data. Functionalities for studying the impact of emission abatement measures on air quality are also included as part of the emission inventory module in the air quality management system, AirQUIS