Environmental Affairs

Lesson 3: Linkages between the air (and other things) we breathe, housing and business

Case Study - NOx in Norrköping

Nitrogen dioxides (NOx) The effect of NOx concentrations

The following dispersion calculations show the difference in NOx concentrations along national road 51 for two different scenarios, one for 1996, the other projected for 2005.

Picture 1 shows the impact of NOx from national road 51 year 1996.

Red is high concentration and blue is low.

View Picture 1 and 2 at: http://www.indic-airviro.smhi.se/nkpg/AQ...

Picture 2 shows the impact of NOx from national road 51 year 2005. Green is medium concentration and blue is low.

Picture 2

The reduction of concentrations is caused by the estimated increased proportion of vehicles with catalytic converters between year 1996 and 2005.

The calculations show that air pollution levels will stronly decrease from year 1996 to year 2005.

This improvement of air quality will be the result of a more modern vehicle fleet equipped with catalythic converters that reduce NOx emissions. Unfortunately the results of such efforts are unlikely to be replicated where improvements in emission technology are accompanied by consumers purchasing larger vehicles (i.e. SUVs), which consume more fuel and emit more pollution.

The air quality improvements can be seen as concrete environmental outcomes, in this case positive results of competent institutional/organisational actions, in our case of the Environmental Health Authority of Norrköping.

The Environmental Health Authority is the city authority responsible for supervision and protection of human and environmental health. The work is regulated by different laws such as the law of environmental protection, the law of health protection, the law of food protection, the law for chemical products, the animal protection law, e t c.

The authority is also responsible for surveillance of city air and water quality. Air monitoring and meteorological stations provide the necessary information about the air quality. Emission databases and dispersion models are other tools used in the management of air and water quality.

  1  2  3  4