Developing effective air quality planning strategies through innovative multi-scale modelling

This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness’.

The implementation of the European Green Deal will continue to guide R&I in this destination. R&I actions under this destination will take forward the zero-pollution ambition, contributing to reach the 2030 targets for pollution reduction in air, water and soil, as stipulated in the zero-pollution action plan. The activities will help establishing a clean industry, contributing to the EU Clean Industrial Deal^[1], and will aim to address, among others, pollutants of concern, including of emerging concern, also in view of the environmental objectives of the European Chemicals Industry Action Plan^[2]. Destination ‘Clean environment and zero pollution’ will help substituting hazardous chemicals and bringing innovation on safe and sustainable by design chemicals to ensure protection of human health and the environment. It will also continue the work on PFAS, the “forever chemicals”, started in the same destination in WP2025. It will also support the implementation of the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive^[3] and the Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive^[4].

This destination will support the zero-pollution ambition in the industrial bio-based and bioeconomy sectors. The principles of the new EU bioeconomy strategy, underpinned by the principles of the circular economy, will allow for the replication value chains with improved resource efficiency and environmental performances, also enabled by innovative approaches designed in the Strategy for European Life Sciences, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy and the upcoming Biotech Act.

Furthermore, R&I activities under this destination will underpin EU water legislation and the European Water Resilience Strategy^[5] by addressing water quantity and quality issues in specific sectors as well as across broader water systems, supporting EU policies and international conventions. The destination will also support the Marine Strategy Framework Directive^[6], particularly in its efforts to assess and mitigate the impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems such as contamination and underwater noise.

R&I actions under this destination will aim to underpin the conclusions from the Strategic Dialogue on EU Agriculture and the Vision for EU Agriculture and Food^[7], and support the next reform of the CAP with scientific evidence.

R&I actions under this Destination will encourage international cooperation, in line with the global approach on R&I. The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions^[8].

Expected impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to "achieve a clean environment, ensure water resilience, and enable the transformative change necessary to reduce air, water and soil pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems, while respecting planetary boundaries". More specifically, they should contribute to one or several of the following expected impacts:

• Advancing scientific understanding and innovative solutions for identifying, preventing and mitigating pollution aim to effectively protect human health and safeguard the environment, preserving cleaner water and seas, healthier air and soil, and resilient forests.
• Innovative circular bio-based systems and biotechnologies are developed and made available to all stakeholders to progress towards the clean environment and zero-pollution ambition.
• Farmers and other actors in the food chain are empowered to make informed decisions and to apply novel strategies to prevent, reduce and remediate pollution from agriculture and the food system, contributing to the zero-pollution ambition.
• Effective solutions to remediate and decontaminate aquatic pollution are developed, made available and implemented contributing to reducing pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to the environment.

[1] Clean Industrial Deal - European Commission

[2] European Chemicals Industry Action Plan – European Commission

[3] Directive - 2008/50 - EN - EUR-Lex

[4] Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive (IED 2.0) - European Commission

[5] Water resilience strategy - European Commission

[6] EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive - European Commission

[7] Vision for Agriculture and Food - European Commission

[8] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:  

• public authorities obtain access to enhanced and innovative modelling capabilities to support air quality planning at various policy levels in a coherent way;
• society benefits from improved governance processes and effective air quality planning strategies, aiming at mitigating air pollution and reducing population exposure, as well as from far more targeted air pollution alerts;
• public authorities, including EU policy-makers and the EEA, receive faster, more comprehensive scientific evidence and tools, enabling more effective EU air quality policy implementation and providing citizens with reliable, detailed information and peak pollution warnings to reduce health impacts.

Scope:

The air we breathe is often polluted, which can lead to serious health problems and even premature death. To address this public health issue, it is essential to understand how pollutants move and interact in the air at different scales, from regional to street level and at different time periods during the day or in different seasons. However, current models used to predict air quality have limitations, particularly in terms of their grid resolution levels and their limited ability to accurately capture the complex interactions between different scales. This can lead to uncertainties and inaccuracies in assessing and predicting air quality, making it challenging to develop and take effective measures to improve air quality.

This topic aims to improve these capabilities by developing a chain of innovative integrated models, relatively easy to use and interpret, that can simulate the air quality situation in different scales and types of areas, including at ‘micro-scale’, and by integrating a temporal-scale dimension, also taking into account emissions into the ambient atmosphere from indoor environments. This should support the development of effective air quality planning strategies at various levels, ultimately helping to reduce air pollution and protect public health. Moreover, it should support the requirements in the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive as regards the development of Air Quality Roadmaps and Air Quality Plans, and for the design and planning of the network of monitoring stations.

More specifically, proposals should:

• develop comprehensive multi-scale modelling chains possibly with two-way nesting capabilities (TRL 5), addressing air quality assessment, including spatial and temporal representativeness, and atmospheric processes of air pollution. Incorporate and improve urban canopy parameterization to better account for complex interactions between urban structures and air pollutants, including the role of urban vegetation in mitigating and/or fostering the formation and/or accumulation of specific air pollutants, with an emphasis on air pollutants with the highest health impacts;
• analyse the current limitations associated with the integration of different models and multiple spatial/ temporal scales in a single modelling system and develop methods to improve and integrate the existing air quality models and required input datasets (TRL 5);
• develop, configure and validate innovative micro-scale modelling systems at very high resolution with the aim of modelling and evaluating the impact of air quality measures to minimize, mitigate, and prevent exceedances at hotspot locations (TRL 5);
• provide guidelines for air quality modelling to support decision making to improve air quality at all scales, including by harmonizing different types of models within an integrated system, as well as promoting the use and development of multi-scale online modelling systems.

Population groups in vulnerable situations are disproportionally affected by air pollution. Proposals should consider the vulnerability dimension (e.g. for children, older people, women, people with lower socio-economic status, people with underlying health conditions) when approaching different scale analyses and provide recommendations on whether and how links could be made with data on social and spatial inequalities related to air pollution exposure and benefits of mitigation measures in developing inclusive air quality plans and in urban planning.

Where relevant, activities should build and expand on the results of past and ongoing research projects and initiatives with a relevant air quality monitoring and/or modelling component to share experiences, reach synergies and avoid duplication. These could include projects funded under H2020 and Horizon Europe as well as under LIFE strategic integrated projects for clean air, such as LIFE PREPAIR and LIFE Malopolska.

Proposals are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the data, expertise and services offered by European research infrastructures^[1] in the environment domain, such as ACTRIS^[2]. Concrete efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

Proposals should, where possible, build on results of and cooperate with AQUILA and FAIRMODE communities and pave the way for the possible transition of the project outcomes into the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. This topic is part of the EC-ESA Earth System Science Initiative, and projects should collaborate with related projects funded by ESA’s FuturEO programme and should towards this end include sufficient means and resources for effective coordination.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium selected for funding. In particular, the JRC could, as relevant, promote and support the harmonised use of scientifically sound air quality modelling approaches and help identify best practices in the area. In this regard, JRC would also usefully facilitate interaction with the JRC-chaired Forum for Air quality Modelling (FAIRMODE).

International cooperation is encouraged.

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[1] The catalogue of European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) research infrastructures portfolio can be browsed from ESFRI website: https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/

[2] Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure: https://www.actris.eu