RI-URBANS: New air quality parameters for an advanced policy assessment in urban Europe

RI-URBANS (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality (AQ) Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial AreaS) is a research project supported by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation Framework Programme, H2020-GD-2020 (grant 10103624) that connects the atmospheric observation expertise from Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases Research InfraStructure (ACTRIS), with the urban air quality observation capacities of the regulatory air quality monitoring networks. It is specifically connected to the new European AQ Directive (NAQD) 2024/2881/CE published on 20 November 2024.

RI-URBANS focuses on the infrastructures to measure emerging pollutants for AQ and the well-being of the citizens. Particularly, service tools (STs) for novel pollutants, such as ultrafine particles (UFP), UFP-number size distribution (PNSD), black carbon (BC) and elemental carbon (EC), as well as ammonia (NH₃) and numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and measurements of tracers of potential toxicity of PM (oxidative potential (OP) of particulate matter PM), are provided for urban supersites in order to support scientific understanding of their effects on health and the environment. The NAQD in Art 10 has introduced the measurements of these new pollutants in a new network of AQ supersites.

To facilitate implementation of the new air quality directive, RI-URBANS developed a series of Service Tools (ST). In essence, they are guidance documents that RI-URBANS have reviewed, in some cases developed, tested, and recommended for advanced AQ assessment in urban areas. These tools can be used to assess AQ in accordance with RI-URBANS AQ monitoring and modelling recommendations for novel pollutants. These recommendations include protocols for measuring the above advanced AQ variables (derived from ACTRIS and CEN or, in specific cases, proposed, when not available), mapping protocols, emission inventories, modelling tools, measuring vertical profiles, and suggested epidemiological approaches to evaluate the health effects of new pollutants.

RI-URBANS has produced 16 STs on the above pollutants, but also on source apportionment of PM, UFP-PNSD, BC, VOCs and OP, as well as on modelling, urban mapping and vertical profiles.

These STs have been tested during one year in 5 pilot studies, where 11 cities were involved. With the results of these demonstration studies final guidance documents were elaborated for each ST. Furthermore, available long-term datasets on the above pollutants have been compiled and interpreted. Thus, in each ST guidance document the added value of measuring the specific pollutant/variable/parameter is also shown.

The electronic file of the guidance documents of the individual STs can be downloaded at https://riurbans.eu/project/#service-too

We present here the 16 STs and how we interacted with the AQ stakeholders for co-designing these and how we have disseminated the guidance documents and influenced elaboration, discussion and implementation of the NAQD as far new pollutants are concerned.