Inventories of air pollutant emissions

Abstract

Compiling and generating inventories of air pollutants is an important first step in any air quality assessment model or airshed management plan. One must know how much is being emitted into the atmosphere before the impact of those emissions can be determined or managed. Inventories can range from the facility scale to the national scale and must include all the pollutants of interest, possible precursors (A compound that participates in the chemical reaction that produces another compound) and all the associated source sectors. Source sectors are used to group similar types of sources, such as Point sources (large industrial facilities), Area sources (small, numerous sources like residential stoves) and Mobile sources (on and off road vehicles). Each sector requires different and specific methods to estimate emissions.