Regional Air Quality
Erika von Schneidemesser and Paul S. Monks
Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester,
Leicester, UK
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject and Its Importance
Introduction
Air Quality Measurements
Health Effects, Ecosystem Effects, and Air
Quality
Modeling
Current Air Quality Legislation and Metrics
Regional Context
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Anthropogenic Caused by humans; man-made.
Biogenic Produced by biological processes.
Cohort study A long-term study of the same
group of people (the cohort) over time, typically used in medicine social science, and
ecology.
Diurnal Relating to the 24 h/day time period.
Dry deposition The deposition of gaseous or particulate species from the atmosphere to a surface
without the involvement of precipitation.
Exceedance The amount by which something
(in this case an air quality pollutant) exceeds
the permissible standard or limit value.
Feedback An internal climate process that
amplifies or dampens the climate response to
an initial forcing, e.g., the release of methane
into the atmosphere due to warmer temperatures, the atmospheric methane increase furthers warming, which causes the release of
more methane into the atmosphere, etc.
Megacity City with a population of greater than
ten million inhabitants.
Metrics A set of measurements used to quantitatively gauge efficiency, progress, or performance. In this case, as applied to air quality.
Mobile sources Any object that releases pollution that is not stationary, e.g., vehicles, planes,
trains, ships, etc.
Radiative forcing A change imposed on the
Earth’s radiation balance in units of heat flux
as watts per square meter (W m
À2 ).
Smog A term derived from smoke and fog
applied to extensive contamination by
aerosols.
Stationary sources Any object that releases pollution from one set location, e.g., power plants,
industrial factories, etc.
Temperature inversion The temperature of the
troposphere normally decreases with increasing altitude; however, a temperature inversion
results when warm air lies above cool air,
which is an extremely stable condition, also
known as an inversion layer.
Temporal Pertaining to time.
Wet deposition The deposition of gaseous or
particulate species from the atmosphere to a
surface during precipitation events (e.g., rain,
snow, fog, dew).
Definition of the Subject and Its
Importance
What is Regional Air Quality?
Clean air is considered to be a basic requirement of
human health and well-being. However, air pollution continues to pose a significant threat to health
worldwide [1].
Air pollution can be defined as “when gases or
aerosol particles emitted anthropogenically build
up in concentrations sufficiently high to cause
direct or indirect damage to plants, animals,
other life forms, ecosystems, structures, or works
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
M. E. Goodsite et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Sources, Statistics and Health Effects,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0596-7_561
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC, 2012
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_561
347
Erika von Schneidemesser and Paul S. Monks
Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester,
Leicester, UK
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject and Its Importance
Introduction
Air Quality Measurements
Health Effects, Ecosystem Effects, and Air
Quality
Modeling
Current Air Quality Legislation and Metrics
Regional Context
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Anthropogenic Caused by humans; man-made.
Biogenic Produced by biological processes.
Cohort study A long-term study of the same
group of people (the cohort) over time, typically used in medicine social science, and
ecology.
Diurnal Relating to the 24 h/day time period.
Dry deposition The deposition of gaseous or particulate species from the atmosphere to a surface
without the involvement of precipitation.
Exceedance The amount by which something
(in this case an air quality pollutant) exceeds
the permissible standard or limit value.
Feedback An internal climate process that
amplifies or dampens the climate response to
an initial forcing, e.g., the release of methane
into the atmosphere due to warmer temperatures, the atmospheric methane increase furthers warming, which causes the release of
more methane into the atmosphere, etc.
Megacity City with a population of greater than
ten million inhabitants.
Metrics A set of measurements used to quantitatively gauge efficiency, progress, or performance. In this case, as applied to air quality.
Mobile sources Any object that releases pollution that is not stationary, e.g., vehicles, planes,
trains, ships, etc.
Radiative forcing A change imposed on the
Earth’s radiation balance in units of heat flux
as watts per square meter (W m
À2 ).
Smog A term derived from smoke and fog
applied to extensive contamination by
aerosols.
Stationary sources Any object that releases pollution from one set location, e.g., power plants,
industrial factories, etc.
Temperature inversion The temperature of the
troposphere normally decreases with increasing altitude; however, a temperature inversion
results when warm air lies above cool air,
which is an extremely stable condition, also
known as an inversion layer.
Temporal Pertaining to time.
Wet deposition The deposition of gaseous or
particulate species from the atmosphere to a
surface during precipitation events (e.g., rain,
snow, fog, dew).
Definition of the Subject and Its
Importance
What is Regional Air Quality?
Clean air is considered to be a basic requirement of
human health and well-being. However, air pollution continues to pose a significant threat to health
worldwide [1].
Air pollution can be defined as “when gases or
aerosol particles emitted anthropogenically build
up in concentrations sufficiently high to cause
direct or indirect damage to plants, animals,
other life forms, ecosystems, structures, or works
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
M. E. Goodsite et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Sources, Statistics and Health Effects,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0596-7_561
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC, 2012
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_561
347