Preliminary assessment of air quality for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and lead in the Netherlands under European legislation

The current air quality in the Netherlands for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and lead has been assessed in the context of limit values, margins of tolerance and the assessment thresholds used in the first daughter directive for air quality of the European Union. On the basis of the differences in air quality and data on population, numbers and density, three zones and six agglomerations in the Netherlands are defined. Depending on the air quality in relation to the assessment threshold levels in the daughter directive, strategies for assessing air quality in the different zones and agglomerations have been defined. Testing for limit values yielded a yearly mean nitrogen dioxide level in many urban areas, which highly exceeded the limit value for this substance. This was also the case for particulate matter concentrations, but to a lesser extent. The monitoring requirements in the daughter directive have been compared with the current station configuration and numbers of different types of stations. Eight new stations will have to be set up for nitrogen dioxide, and 23 for particulate matter under the assumption that only measurements are used to determine the air quality