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Particulate matter (PM) air quality in Europe has improved substantially over the past decades, but it still poses a significant threat to human health. Accurate regional scale maps of PM10 concentrations are needed for monitoring progress in mitigation strategies and monitoring compliance with statutory limit values. Chemistry transport models (CTM) use emission databases and simulate the transport and deposition of pollutants. They deliver such maps but are known to be inaccurate. A promising approach is to use geostatistics to model the relationship between the in situ observations and the CTM. This has been shown to be more accurate than using either observations or CTM's alone. This paper presents a spatially varying coefficients (SVC) geostatistical model as an extension of the standard spatially varying intercept (SVI) geostatistical model. SVC allowed the regression coefficient to vary spatially according to a covariance function, the parameters of which were estimated from the data. It was built as a Bayesian hierarchical model and implemented using Markov chain Monte Carlo. The procedure was applied to Airbase PM10 observations and LOTOS-EUROS simulated PM10 for central, southern and eastern Europe. Model-fit diagnostics showed that SVC delivered a better fit to the data than SVI. Mapping the spatially varying coefficients allowed identification of the locations where the CTM performed well or poorly. This could be used for objective CTM evaluation purposes. The posterior predictive simulations were also used to map median PM10 concentrations as well as the probability of exceeding the 50 μg m−3 EU daily PM10 concentration threshold. Although posterior median prediction accuracy was similar for SVI and SVC, SVC better modelled the process and yielded narrower credible intervals. As such, SVC was more appropriate for quantifying uncertainty and for mapping threshold exceedances. The resulting maps may be used to guide air quality assessment and mitigation strategies, including those related to health impacts

We have made a number of developments to the Weather, Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), with the aim of improving model prediction of trace atmospheric gas-phase chemical and aerosol composition, and of interactions between air quality and weather. A reduced form of the Common Reactive Intermediates gas-phase chemical mechanism (CRIv2-R5) has been added, using the Kinetic Pre-Processor (KPP) interface, to enable more explicit simulation of VOC degradation. N2O5 heterogeneous chemistry has been added to the existing sectional MOSAIC aerosol module, and coupled to both the CRIv2-R5 and existing CBM-Z gas-phase schemes. Modifications have also been made to the sea-spray aerosol emission representation, allowing the inclusion of primary organic material in sea-spray aerosol. We have worked on the European domain, with a particular focus on making the model suitable for the study of nighttime chemistry and oxidation by the nitrate radical in the UK atmosphere. Driven by appropriate emissions, wind fields and chemical boundary conditions, implementation of the different developments are illustrated, using a modified version of WRF-Chem 3.4.1, in order to demonstrate the impact that these changes have in the Northwest European domain. These developments are publicly available in WRF-Chem from version 3.5.1 onwards.

The second phase of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) brought together seventeen modeling groups from Europe and North America, running eight operational online-coupled air quality models over Europe and North America using common emissions and boundary conditions. The simulated annual, seasonal, continental and sub-regional particulate matter (PM) surface concentrations for the year 2010 have been evaluated against a large observational database from different measurement networks operating in Europe and North America. The results show a systematic underestimation for all models in almost all seasons and sub-regions, with the largest underestimations for the Mediterranean region. The rural PM10 concentrations over Europe are underestimated by all models by up to 66% while the underestimations are much larger for the urban PM10 concentrations (up to 75%). On the other hand, there are overestimations in PM2.5 levels suggesting that the large underestimations in the PM10 levels can be attributed to the natural dust emissions. Over North America, there is a general underestimation in PM10 in all seasons and sub-regions by up to ~90% due mainly to the under predictions in soil dust. SO2/4 levels over EU are underestimated by majority of the models while NO-3 levels are largely overestimated, particulary in east and south Europe. NH4 levels are also under- underestimated largely in south Europe. SO4 levels over North America are particularly overestimated over the western US that is characterized by large anthropogenic emissions while the eastern USA is characterized by underestimated SO4 levels by the majority of the models. Daytime AOD levels at 555 nm is simulated within the 50% error range over both continents with differences attributed to differences in concentrations of the relevant species as well as in approaches in estimating the AOD. Results show that the simulated dry deposition can lead to substantial differences among the models. Overall, the results show that representation of dust and sea-salt emissions can largely impact the simulated PM concentrations and that there are still major challenges and uncertainties in simulating the PM levels.

In the project FRESHEM Zeeland the entire Province of Zeeland in the south-western part of the Netherlands was surveyed using frequency-domain helicopter-borne electromagnetics (FDHEM). The airborne survey of more than 9000 line-km was conducted in 2014-15 by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR). Together with the Dutch partners Deltares and TNO, an approach has been developed to translate the FDHEM data into a full 3D mapping of the chloride concentration of an area of about 1800 km². Verification with an independent dataset showed that groundwater salinity can be accurately calculated based on FDHEM measurements and a stochastic lithological model. Using indicator kriging as interpolation method turns out to be suitable to construct a 3D voxel model, revealing high resolution spatial patterns of groundwater salinity.

In the project FRESHEM Zeeland the entire Province of Zeeland in the south-western part of the Netherlands was surveyed using frequency-domain helicopter-borne electromagnetics (FDHEM). The airborne survey of more than 9000 line-km was conducted in 2014-15 by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR). Together with the Dutch partners Deltares and TNO, an approach has been developed to translate the FDHEM data into a full 3D mapping of the chloride concentration of an area of about 1800 km². Verification with an independent dataset showed that groundwater salinity can be accurately calculated based on FDHEM measurements and a stochastic lithological model. Using indicator kriging as interpolation method turns out to be suitable to construct a 3D voxel model, revealing high resolution spatial patterns of groundwater salinity.

We have integrated the atmospheric chemistry and transport model TM5 into the global climate model EC-Earth version 2.4. We present an overview of the TM5 model and the two-way data exchange between TM5 and the IFS model from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the atmospheric general circulation model of EC-Earth. In this paper we evaluate the simulation of tropospheric chemistry and aerosols in a one-way coupled configuration. We have carried out a decadal simulation for present-day conditions and calculated chemical budgets and climatologies of tracer concentrations and aerosol optical depth. For comparison we have also performed offline simulations driven by meteorological fields from ECMWF's ERA-Interim reanalysis and output from the EC-Earth model itself. Compared to the offline simulations, the online-coupled system produces more efficient vertical mixing in the troposphere, which reflects an improvement of the treatment of cumulus convection. The chemistry in the EC-Earth simulations is affected by the fact that the current version of EC-Earth produces a cold bias with too dry air in large parts of the troposphere. Compared to the ERA-Interim driven simulation, the oxidizing capacity in EC-Earth is lower in the tropics and higher in the extratropics. The atmospheric lifetime of methane in EC-Earth is 9.4 years, which is 7% longer than the lifetime obtained with ERA-Interim but remains well within the range reported in the literature. We further evaluate the model by comparing the simulated climatologies of surface radon-222 and carbon monoxide, tropospheric and surface ozone, and aerosol optical depth against observational data. The work presented in this study is the first step in the development of EC-Earth into an Earth system model with fully interactive atmospheric chemistry and aerosols.

A mathematical model is presented for the determination of human exposure to ambient air pollution in an urban area; the model is a refined version of a previously developed mathematical model EXPAND (EXposure model for Particulate matter And Nitrogen oxiDes). The model combines predicted concentrations, information on people's activities and location of the population to evaluate the spatial and temporal variation of average exposure of the urban population to ambient air pollution in different microenvironments. The revisions of the modelling system containing the EXPAND model include improvements of the associated urban emission and dispersion modelling system, an improved treatment of the time use of population, and better treatment for the infiltration coefficients from outdoor to indoor air. The revised model version can also be used for estimating intake fractions for various pollutants, source categories and population subgroups. We present numerical results on annual spatial concentration, time activity and population exposures to PM2.5 in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and Helsinki for 2008 and 2009, respectively. Approximately 60% of the total exposure occurred at home, 17% at work, 4% in traffic and 19% in other microenvironments in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The population exposure originating from the long-range transported background concentrations was responsible for a major fraction, 86 %, of the total exposure in Helsinki. The largest local contributors were vehicular emissions (12 %) and shipping (2 %). © Author(s) 2014. CC Attribution 3.0 License.

Trace and major elements concentrations in PM10 and PM2.5 were measured at 20 sites spread in the Barcelona metropolitan area (1 rural background, 6 urban background, 13 road traffic sites) and at 1 reference site. Three 2-week samples per site and size fraction were collected during 2009 using low volume samplers, adding a total of 120 samples. Collected samples were analysed for elemental composition using Energy Dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF). EC, OC, and hopanes and steranes concentrations in PM2.5 were determined. Positive Matrix Factorisation (PMF) model was used for a source apportionment analysis. The work was performed as part of the ESCAPE project.Elements were found in concentrations within the usual range in Spanish urban areas. Mineral elements were measured in higher concentrations during the warm season, due to enhanced resuspension; concentrations of fueloil combustion elements were also higher in summer. Elements in higher concentration at the traffic sites were: Ba, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Pb, Sn, Zn and Zr. Spatial variations related to non-traffic sources were observed for concentrations of Br, Cl, K, and Na (sea salt origin) and Ni, V and S (shipping emissions), which were higher at the coastal sites, as well as for Zn and Pb, higher at sites closer to industrial facilities.Five common sources for PM10 and PM2.5 were identified by PMF: road traffic (with tracers Ba, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mo and Zn); fueloil combustion (Ni and V); secondary sulphate; industry (Pb and Zn); and mineral source (Al, Ca, Mg, Si, Sr and Ti). A marine aerosol source, a mixture of sea salt with aged anthropogenic aerosols, was found only in PM10. EC, hopanes and steranes concentrations correlate strongly with the PM10 road traffic source contributions, being hence all attributed to the same source. OC may arise from other sources in addition to road traffic and have a high contribution of secondary OC.Significant spatial and temporal variation in the PM2.5 and PM10 elemental composition was found. Spatial patterns differed per element, related to the main source. The identified source contributions can be used in health studies of source-specific particles. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Chemicals/CAS: barium ion, 22541-12-4; bromine, 7726-95-6; chlorine, 13981-72-1, 7782-50-5; chromium, 14092-98-9, 16065-83-1, 7440-47-3; hydrochloric acid, 7647-01-0; iron, 14093-02-8, 53858-86-9, 7439-89-6; lead, 13966-28-4, 7439-92-1; manganese, 16397-91-4, 7439-96-5; molybdenum, 7439-98-7; nickel, 7440-02-0; potassium, 7440-09-7; prednisolone, 50-24-8; sodium, 7440-23-5; sodium nitrate, 7631-99-4; sulfate, 14808-79-8; sulfur, 13981-57-2, 7704-34-9; tin, 14314-35-3, 7440-31-5; vanadium, 7440-62-2; zinc, 14378-32-6, 7440-66-6; zirconium, 14940-68-2, 7440-67-7

Limited information is available on the contribution of organic components in particulate matter to health effects related to fine particles. Spatial variability of specific fine particle organic components has not been assessed with consistent methods. The aim of this paper is to assess spatial variation of organic components of fine particles within and between European study areas. Highly standardized measurements of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), hopanes/steranes, elemental/organic carbon (EC/OC) and levoglucosan were performed measured in ten study areas across Europe. In each study area, measurements were conducted at street, urban and regional background sites. Three two-week samples were taken per site and the annual average levels of pollutants were calculated using continuous measurements at one background site as a reference.Substantial variations within and between the study areas were found. EC/OC and hopanes/steranes concentrations were highest in southern European study areas and lowest in northern locations. PAH concentrations were lowest in London/Oxford and highest in Copenhagen, Rome and Athens. Concentrations at street locations were higher than at background locations in all study areas and for all components. However, these differences varied considerably between study areas and components. EC had the highest median street to urban background ratio (1.62), OC the lowest (1.32). EC was highly correlated with NOx and PM2.5 absorbance in all areas, with median r=0.85 and r=0.89, respectively. The correlation between OC and other components was variable, with a median correlation of 0.65 with PM2.5 mass and a weak (0.18) correlation with σhopanes/steranes. σPAH correlated moderately with EC (r=0.59) and weakly with ∑hopanes/steranes (r=0.36).In conclusion, substantial variability was found in spatial patterns of atmospheric EC, OC, PAH and hopanes/steranes both within and between European study areas. The application of this highly standardized measurement approach across different locations will contribute to a consistent assessment of air pollutant levels and potentially contribute to understanding health effects associated with them. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

In an earlier study, two hierarchical multi-objective methods were suggested to include short-term targets in life-cycle production optimization. However, this earlier study has two limitations: (1) the adjoint formulation is used to obtain gradient information, requiring simulator source code access and an extensive implementation effort, and (2) one of the two proposed methods relies on the Hessian matrix which is obtained by a computationally expensive method. In order to overcome the first of these limitations, we used ensemble-based optimization (EnOpt). EnOpt does not require source code access and is relatively easy to implement. To address the second limitation, we used the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) algorithm to obtain an approximation of the Hessian matrix. We performed experiments in which water flood was optimized in a geologically realistic multilayer sector model. The controls were inflow control valve settings at predefined time intervals. Undiscounted net present value (NPV) and highly discounted NPV were the long-term and short-term objective functions used. We obtained an increase of approximately 14 % in the secondary objective for a decrease of only 0.2–0.5 % in the primary objective. The study demonstrates that ensemble-based hierarchical multi-objective optimization can achieve results of practical value in a computationally efficient manner

On a geological carbon dioxide storage site, wells (decommissioned or active) drilled through low-permeable caprock are potential connections between the CO2 storage reservoir and overlying sensitive targets like aquifers. The integrity of wells over time is therefore essential for the fluids confinements (brine with or without dissolved CO2 or buoyant gaseous CO2). Well integrity can be defined as its capacity to maintain the isolation of fluids in the subsurface reservoirs. To ensure this isolation, the well casing and the caprock are bonded by a cement sheath; after abandonment, a cement plug is used to avoid upward migration within the casing. However, according to the literature wellbore integrity might be compromised by a) operational defects (during the drilling and cementing processes, during the operations where pressure and temperature changes can modify stress conditions, during the abandonment process) or b) chemical changes especially in the context of CO2 storage where different chemical environments can be possibly found. The evolution of the well integrity is therefore a complex combination of several physical processes (hydrological, thermal, mechanical and chemical at least) on the different materials and elements (formation, cement, casing, interfaces, annuli). The issue addressed in this study is the behaviour of the complete wellbore system in different conditions and especially under influence of CO2. An in situ experiment has been designed and is being run in an underground rock laboratory (Mont Terri, Switzerland) at an intermediate scale between the laboratory experiments (which offer the opportunity to assess specific phenomena over time) and field observations (which allow an assessment of the entire system in subsurface at a specific time). The purpose is here to follow the evolution of the integrity of the whole well system both for hydrogeological and geochemical aspects. Modelling and lab experiments, including material characterization are performed in parallel to enable a better interpretation and understanding of the observations. The experimental setup has been designed as follows: a small section of a wellbore is reproduced in the Opalinus Clay of the underground rock laboratory (caprock-like formation) at scale 1:1 (5.5 '' casing and Ø198 mm borehole), using carbon steel for the casing and class G cement. Below and above the well section, two different intervals have been designed for a continuous monitoring of the pressure and temperature conditions or for fluid injection and extraction (for fluid sampling for instance). The experimental protocol contains several stages: 1- Drilling, relaxation and well completion; 2- Initial state characterization; 3- Temperature increase in the system and characterisation; 4- Injection of pore water with dissolved CO2 and tracers, and characterization. The characterization of the system includes both performing hydro-tests (continuous and constant-head tests) to quantify the hydraulic properties of the well and their evolution over time, and sampling the fluids to analyse the geochemical composition and changes. Stages 1, 2 and 3 are now completed and stage 4 is in progress. The first results (of stage 2 and 3) confirm the ability of the chosen design to assess well integrity over time. It also shows first trends in the evolution of integrity especially under influence of the temperature: the equivalent permeability of the wellbore decreased significantly during that stage, improving the well integrity. Three modelling methods are used to predict the results of the experiment or to use the recorded data: 1) flow and transport modelling, 2) geochemical modelling, and 3) reactive transport modelling (TOUGH2 used for 1, and PhreeqC and TOUGHREACT for 2 and 3). Flow modelling has been associated with the hydraulic tests in order to quantify the well integrity in terms of equivalent permeability during stage 2 and 3. Temperature effects have been included in the models to understand the changes that occurred in terms of effective permeability during stage 3. Geochemical models have been developed to evaluate the validity of chemical sealing as a potential explanation for the increase of well integrity observed during stage 3. The models are also used as predictive tools on the potential evolutionary scenarios for stage 4, regarding water chemistry variations and mineralogical changes. They have been notably useful to calibrate the conditions of the dissolved CO2 in terms of tracers used, and of sampling and in-line fluid analysis protocol. Each of those models will be progressively refined during the CO2-dissolved injection (stage 4) with the aim of aiding the interpretation of the observed processes and phenomena. Finally this field experiment-modelling integrated framework is completed by laboratory characterizations and experiments (in autoclave principally) carried out to provide input data for the modelling with regards to cement, caprock and their reactivity with pore water and CO2.

The impact of silver nanoparticles (AgNP; at 0mg Ag/kg, 1.5mg Ag/kg, 15.4mg Ag/kg, and 154mg Ag/kg soil) and silver nitrate (AgNO3; 15.4mg Ag/kg soil) on earthworms, Lumbricus rubellus, was assessed. A 4-wk exposure to the highest AgNP treatment reduced growth and reproduction compared with the control. Silver nitrate (AgNO3) exposure also impaired reproduction, but not as much as the highest AgNP treatment. Long-term exposure to the highest AgNP treatment caused complete juvenile mortality. All AgNP treatments induced tissue pathology. Population modeling demonstrated reduced population growth rates for the AgNP and AgNO3 treatments, and no population growth at the highest AgNP treatment because of juvenile mortality. Analysis of AgNP treated soil samples revealed that single AgNP and AgNP clusters were present in the soil, and that the total Ag in soil porewater remained high throughout the long-term experiment. In addition, immune cells (coelomocytes) of earthworms showed sensitivity to both AgNP and AgNO3 in vitro. Overall, the present study indicates that AgNP exposure may affect earthworm populations and that the exposure may be prolonged because of the release of a dissolved Ag fraction to soil porewater. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:743-752. © 2013 SETAC.

The Rotterdam Capture and Storage Demonstration Project (ROAD) is an integrated CCS project in the Netherlands that has recently completed the storage permitting process. Development of the monitoring and contingency plans is a key component of this process. Our paper discusses the development of the monitoring and contingency plans, The project is technically relatively simple in comparison to other CO2 storage projects, with a single well penetrating the reservoir and minimum equipment installed on the platform offshore. In spite of this, a most thorough approach to monitoring will be adopted. As new techniques and equipment are developed, these will be included whenever judged appropriate and in addition, provided that these techniques do not add to the complexity associated with operating an offshore, unmanned installation that will be producing hydrocarbons continuously throughout much of the project timeline. Overall, the ROAD traffic light approach promotes transparency and provides the flexibility to adjust the monitoring plan based on data and modelling results becoming available as the project progresses. The philosophy relies on consistency of the monitoring plan and contingency plans with the risk management and closure plans as well as on regular communication with the Competent Authority and stakeholders at every stage of the project.

Online coupled mesoscale meteorology atmospheric chemistry models have undergone a rapid evolution in recent years. Although mainly developed by the air quality modelling community, these models are also of interest for numerical weather prediction and regional climate modelling as they can consider not only the effects of meteorology on air quality, but also the potentially important effects of atmospheric composition on weather. Two ways of online coupling can be distinguished: online integrated and online access coupling. Online integrated models simulate meteorology and chemistry over the same grid in one model using one main time step for integration. Online access models use independent meteorology and chemistry modules that might even have different grids, but exchange meteorology and chemistry data on a regular and frequent basis. This article offers a comprehensive review of the current research status of online coupled meteorology and atmospheric chemistry modelling within Europe. Eighteen regional online coupled models developed or being used in Europe are described and compared. Topics discussed include a survey of processes relevant to the interactions between atmospheric physics, dynamics and composition; a brief overview of existing online mesoscale models and European model developments; an analysis on how feedback processes are treated in these models; numerical issues associated with coupled models; and several case studies and model performance evaluation methods. Finally, this article highlights selected scientific issues and emerging challenges that require proper consideration to improve the reliability and usability of these models for the three scientific communities: air quality, numerical meteorology modelling (including weather prediction) and climate modelling. This review will be of particular interest to model developers and users in all three fields as it presents a synthesis of scientific progress and provides recommendations for future research directions and priorities in the development, application and evaluation of online coupled models. This work was realised within and supported by the COST Action ES1004 EuMetChem. Several authors of this article are grateful for the support received from the following projects: EC FP7 TRANSPHORM and PEGASOS, Nordic EnsCLIM, the RF SOL No 11.G34.31.0078 and No 14.B37.21.0880 at RSHU, the US NSF EaSM program (AGS-1049200) at NCSU, the German Science Foundation grant No SCHL-499-4, the Spanish projects “Supercomputación y eCiencia” (CSD2007-0050) and CGL2010-19652, Estonian grants ETAG 7895 and SF0180038s08, and the NASA’s Air Quality Science Team (AQAST) programme. Acknowledgements go to Ralf Wolke (IfT Leipzig, COSMOMUSCAT); Kristian Nielsen, Ashraf Zakey and Roman Nuterman (DMI, Enviro-HIRLAM), Jacek Kaminski, Joanna Struzewska (GEM-AQ); Fabien Solmon (ICTP, RegCM), Maud Leriche, Christine Lac (Meso-NH), Malte Uphoff (Univ. Hamburg, M-SYS), Erik van Meijgaard (KNMI, RACMO2), Claas Teichmann (CSC, REMO-HAM), Bärbel Langmann (Univ. Hamburg, REMOTE), Rohit Mathur, Jon Pleim, Christian Hogrefe (US EPA, WRFCMAQ) for providing detailed information on the named model systems and for valuable comments, Carlos Pérez García-Pando for permission of his figure use, Sabine Ehrenreich for a technical support with the manuscript revision, and all COST ES1004 members for collaboration and productive discussions during COST meetings. The editor David Topping, as well as David Schultz, Jaakko Kukkonen, Mark Z. Jacobson, Shaocai Yu, Peter Builtjes, Rahul Zaveri, Carsten A. Skjoth, Paul A. Makar and 3 anonymous reviewers are thanked for thorough reviews, and for many valuable comments that substantially improved this article.

Various approaches are used to evaluate the capacity of saline aquifers to store CO2, resulting in a wide range of capacity estimates for a given aquifer. The two approaches most used are the volumetric “open aquifer” and “closed aquifer” approaches. We present four full-scale aquifer cases, where CO2 storage capacity is evaluated both volumetrically (with “open” and/or “closed” approaches) and through flow modeling. These examples show that the “open aquifer” CO2 storage capacity estimation can strongly exceed the cumulative CO2 injection from the flow model, whereas the “closed aquifer” estimates are a closer approximation to the flow-model derived capacity.An analogy to oil recovery mechanisms is presented, where the primary oil recovery mechanism is compared to CO2 aquifer storage without producing formation water; and the secondary oil recovery mechanism (water flooding) is compared to CO2 aquifer storage performed simultaneously with extraction of water for pressure maintenance. This analogy supports the finding that the “closed aquifer” approach produces a better estimate of CO2 storage without water extraction, and highlights the need for any CO2 storage estimate to specify whether it is intended to represent CO2 storage capacity with or without water extraction.

Many CCS research projects are confined to lab or pilot scale, others restrict themselves to one or two fields of interest such as capture or storage. The first Dutch national R&D programme on CCS (CATO) and its successor CATO2 have been organized as integrated, demand-driven research programmes with a clear focus on the support of pilot projects and demonstration projects at industrial scale in addition to fundamental research.The integration in CATO-2 provided additional value to our stakeholders. Such value creation is most prominent within the context of large integrated demonstration projects such as the ROAD project but is evident in most of our fundamental work too. This paper provides a brief overview of the results obtained in the CATO-2 programme in the past five year with a focus on the value of integration.

Faults can determine the success or failure of low enthalpy geothermal projects. This is due to their capacity to behave as pathways or baffles to geothermal water (or both simultaneously) and their prevalence throughout the subsurface. Here we present an initial assessment of the possibility for faults in the Northern Belgium (Flanders) and Netherlands border region to impact the geothermal potential of four selected reservoirs.

To design effective mitigation strategies, the origin of emissions which produce air pollutants needs to be known. Contributors to air pollutants can be emission sources, like road traffic or industry, but also be more specified to emission from one location or from a specified time. Chemistry transport models can be used to assess the origin of air pollution across a large domain. However, in traditional simulations the information on origin is lost and brute force scenario studies are performed to assess the origin. Alternatively, one can trace the origin of air pollutants throughout a simulation using a labeling approach. In this paper we document and demonstrate a newly developed labeling module for the chemistry transport model LOTOS-EUROS which tracks the source allocation for all particulate matter components and precursor gases. Dedicated simulations confirmed that the new module functions correctly. The new module provides more accurate information about the source contributions than using a brute force approach with scenario runs as the chemical regime remains unchanged. An important advantage of the new module is the reduction of computation costs and analysis work associated with the calculations. The new module was applied to assess the origin of particulate nitrate across the Netherlands. Averaged across the Dutch territory, the main contributions to nitrate are derived from road and non-road transport as well as power plants. Overall, only one-fifth of the concentration derived from sources located inside the country. The new technology enables new research directions as improved information on pollution origin is desired for policy support as well as scientific applications.

The South-Africa Europe Cooperation in Carbon capture and Storage (SAfECCS) project was initiated in 2011. The aim of the project is to support the South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage (SACCCS) Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in South Africa through assessing the potential for geological storage, the impact of the existing legal framework and the relevance of possible funding streams for the proposed Test Injection Project as well as by undertaking capacity building and knowledge sharing activities.

Seismic interferometry applied to ambient-noise measurements allows the retrieval of the seismic response between pairs of receivers. We studied ambient-noise seismic interferometry (ANSI) to retrieve time-lapse reflection responses from a reservoir during CO2 geologic sequestration, using the case of the experimental site of Ketzin, Germany. We applied ANSI to numerically modeled data to retrieve base and repeat reflection responses characterizing the impedances occurring at the reservoir both with and without the injection of CO2. The modeled data represented global transmission responses from band-limited noise sources randomly triggered in space and time. We found that strong constraints on the spatial distribution of the passive sources were not required to retrieve the time-lapse signal as long as sufficient source-location repeatability was observed between the base and the repeat passive survey. To illustrate the potential of the technique, ANSI was applied to three days of passive field data recorded in 2012 at Ketzin. Comparison with the modeled results illustrated the potential to retrieve key reflection events using ANSI on field data from Ketzin. This study supports the idea that the geologic setting and characteristics of ambient noise at Ketzin may be opportune to monitor CO2 sequestration.

The short- and long-term geochemical impact of CO2 injection into a depleted gas reservoir (DGR) is investigated using reservoir/geochemical modeling with TOUGH2/TOUGHREACT and 1D kinetic diffusion modeling with PHREEQC (caprock/well-cement). Simulations of CO2 injection into the reservoir predict displacement and buoyancy of post-production CH4, as well as dry-out of the near-well zone. We computed that the areal extent of the CH4/brine dominated zone and the dry-out zone are relatively small compared to the CO2/brine dominated zone after well-closure. For the current DGR model we therefore conclude that it is reasonable to model geochemical reactions in the reservoir without taking into account post-production CH4. Although the CO2 dissolution capacity of the studied DGR is smaller compared to a deep saline aquifer of similar size, the modeling predicts that dissolution and subsequent CO2 mineral trapping proceed faster. Precipitation of dawsonite and magnesite were yet predicted at initial CO2 partial pressure (PCO2) of 9.3bar, while these minerals were not identified in reservoir samples. This could indicate that their tendency of precipitation is overestimated by the model and hence the database used. This has significant impact on long-term modeled bulk porosity and PCO2. Simulations of CO2 diffusion through the caprock show that mineral reactions significantly retard the total dissolved carbon (TDC) plume. After 10,000 years, 99% of the TDC is present within the first 6.4m above the reservoir contact. The progression of the TDC plume in the caprock is sensitive to the composition, kinetic rates, and surface area of primary and secondary minerals. Cement alteration modeling shows progressive carbonation of cement phases, resulting in three zones of distinct mineralogy and porosity. The three zones are predominantly characterized by: (i) unaltered cement, (ii) portlandite dissolution, and (iii) calcite precipitation. The simulated thickness of the affected zone is 3.8cm after 100 years. This distance is sensitive to kinetic rate constants of C-S-H phases, but less sensitive to kinetic rate constant of portlandite. In summary, our applied methodology provides quantitative predictions of the geochemical impact of CO2 on the DGR storage complex. The methodology can be used for screening of potential DGR storage locations and to define criteria for minimal caprock and cement sheet thickness, for assuring short- and long-term integrity of the storage location.

At the beginning of 2009 new space-borne observations of dry-air column-averaged mole fractions of atmospheric methane (XCH4) became available from the Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observations-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) instrument on board the Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT). Until April 2012 concurrent methane (CH4) retrievals were provided by the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CartograpHY (SCIAMACHY) instrument on board the ENVironmental SATellite (ENVISAT). The GOSAT and SCIAMACHY XCH4 retrievals can be compared during the period of overlap. We estimate monthly average CH4 emissions between January 2010 and December 2011, using the TM5-4DVAR inverse modelling system. In addition to satellite data, high-accuracy measurements from the Cooperative Air Sampling Network of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA ESRL) are used, providing strong constraints on the remote surface atmosphere. We discuss five inversion scenarios that make use of different GOSAT and SCIAMACHY XCH4 retrieval products, including two sets of GOSAT proxy retrievals processed independently by the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)/Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and the University of Leicester (UL), and the RemoTeC "Full-Physics" (FP) XCH4 retrievals available from SRON/KIT. The GOSAT-based inversions show significant reductions in the root mean square (rms) difference between retrieved and modelled XCH4, and require much smaller bias corrections compared to the inversion using SCIAMACHY retrievals, reflecting the higher precision and relative accuracy of the GOSAT XCH4. Despite the large differences between the GOSAT and SCIAMACHY retrievals, 2-year average emission maps show overall good agreement among all satellitebased inversions, with consistent flux adjustment patterns, particularly across equatorial Africa and North America. Over North America, the satellite inversions result in a significant redistribution of CH4 emissions from North-East to South-Central United States. This result is consistent with recent independent studies suggesting a systematic underestimation of CH4 emissions from North American fossil fuel sources in bottom-up inventories, likely related to natural gas production facilities. Furthermore, all four satellite inversions yield lower CH4 fluxes across the Congo basin compared to the NOAA-only scenario, but higher emissions across tropical East Africa. The GOSAT and SCIAMACHY inversions show similar performance when validated against independent shipboard and aircraft observations, and XCH4 retrievals available from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON).

We present a novel approach to study the organic composition of aerosol filter samples using thermal-desorption proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (TD-PTR-MS) in the laboratory. The method is tested and validated based on the comparison with in situ TD-PTR-MS measurements. In general, we observe correspondence within the levels of uncertainty between in situ and offline TD-PTR-MS measurements for compounds desorbing at temperatures above 100. °C and for quartz fiber filters that were sampled for more than one day. Positive sampling artifacts (50-80%, with respect to the in situ measurements) from adsorption of semivolatile organic gas phase compounds are apparent on filters sampled for one day. Detailed chemical analysis shows that these positive sampling artifacts are likely caused by primary emissions that have not been strongly oxidized. Negative sampling artifacts (7-35%, with respect to the in situ measurements) are observed for most filters sampled for two and three days, and potentially caused by incomplete desorption of aerosols (in particular, nitrogen-containing organics) from the filters during the offline measurements and chemical reactions on the filters. Chemicals/CAS: nitrogen, 7727-37-9; oxygen, 7782-44-7; silicon dioxide, 10279-57-9, 14464-46-1, 14808-60-7, 15468-32-3, 60676-86-0, 7631-86-9

A new membrane distillation (MD) concept (MemPower) has been developed for the simultaneous production of high-quality water from various aqueous feedstocks with cogeneration of mechanical power (electricity). Driven by low-grade heat (waste, solar, geothermal, etc.) a pressurized distillate can be produced by operating TNO’s Memstill® process at high hydraulic pressures. These pressures are theoretically limited by the liquid entry pressure (LEP) of the membrane. The proof of principle has been shown and is based on the transport of water vapor against a hydraulic pressure gradient. Various commercially available membranes have been evaluated in order to obtain high yields in water flux and power densities. Power densities have been measured which are sufficient to drive the pumps in MD. This allows standalone Memstill® units without electricity consumption to be possible, which are fully driven by waste heat. The application of new incompressible hydrophobic membranes, combining a high permeance with a high LEP, will allow for much higher power densities. Presented at the Conference on Desalination for the Environment: Clean Water and Energy 11–15 May 2014, Limassol, Cyprus

Based on the experience acquired in the Bergpolder Zuid district in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, this paper presents lessons learned so far on science-policy interactions supporting the adaptation to climate change in an urban district. Two types of integration issues were considered: (1) Integration within science including integration of disciplines, methods, models and data, and (2) integration between science and the local stakeholders' society, involving a synthesis of scientific and practical knowledge, linking sectors, governance arrangements and organisations. At first sight, the issues around integration within science and beyond the science of climate change adaptation in cities resemble those generally observed in science-policy integration. However, the relative newness of urban adaptation to climate change poses specific challenges for both the scientists and the stakeholders involved in the process. The Rotterdam example discusses the use of multiple means of integration for enhancing integration between scientific disciplines and integration between scientific and stakeholder knowledge.

A new membrane distillation (MD) concept (MemPower) has been developed for the simultaneous production of high-quality water from various aqueous feedstocks with cogeneration of mechanical power (electricity). Driven by low-grade heat (waste, solar, geothermal, etc.) a pressurized distillate can be produced by operating TNO’s Memstill® process at high hydraulic pressures. These pressures are theoretically limited by the liquid entry pressure (LEP) of the membrane. The proof of principle has been shown and is based on the transport of water vapor against a hydraulic pressure gradient. Various commercially available membranes have been evaluated in order to obtain high yields in water flux and power densities. Power densities have been measured which are sufficient to drive the pumps in MD. This allows standalone Memstill® units without electricity consumption to be possible, which are fully driven by waste heat. The application of new incompressible hydrophobic membranes, combining a high permeance with a high LEP, will allow for much higher power densities. Presented at the Conference on Desalination for the Environment: Clean Water and Energy 11–15 May 2014, Limassol, Cyprus

Seismic interferometry applied to ambient-noise measurements allows the retrieval of the seismic response between pairs of receivers. We studied ambient-noise seismic interferometry (ANSI) to retrieve time-lapse reflection responses from a reservoir during CO2 geologic sequestration, using the case of the experimental site of Ketzin, Germany. We applied ANSI to numerically modeled data to retrieve base and repeat reflection responses characterizing the impedances occurring at the reservoir both with and without the injection of CO2. The modeled data represented global transmission responses from band-limited noise sources randomly triggered in space and time. We found that strong constraints on the spatial distribution of the passive sources were not required to retrieve the time-lapse signal as long as sufficient source-location repeatability was observed between the base and the repeat passive survey. To illustrate the potential of the technique, ANSI was applied to three days of passive field data recorded in 2012 at Ketzin. Comparison with the modeled results illustrated the potential to retrieve key reflection events using ANSI on field data from Ketzin. This study supports the idea that the geologic setting and characteristics of ambient noise at Ketzin may be opportune to monitor CO2 sequestration.

The European KIC-Climate project Water and Energy for Climate Change (WE4CC) aims at the technical demonstration, business case evaluation and implementation of new value chains for the production of high-quality water using low-grade thermal waste energy from cooling water. A typical large-scale waste heat water network is the production of the boiler feed water from surface water using waste heat of temperatures below 60°C from power plants. Two innovative membrane distillation concepts for the production of high-quality water were evaluated for this case in terms of operational conditions, equipment size and costs which are dependent on the available amount of waste heat and its temperature. • Memstill® (partial use of waste heat, by partially cooling down cooling water such that the remaining heat can be reused for other applications, e.g. for the recovery of desiccant solutions) • MD-HEX, i.e. membrane distillation with an extra integrated heat envelope within the Memstill® module for full use of waste heat which is taken up by the produced water and/or the concentrate. Both Memstill® and MD-HEX behave as a demineralised water (demi-water) producing once-through cooler. Due to the utilisation of waste heat, much less electricity is needed for the production of demi-water relative to other water production technologies. Memstill® also behaves as a waste heat-consuming demi-water producing technology. Thus, significant reductions in cooling water intake, costs and GHG emissions can be achieved. © 2014 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.

Het Kennisinstituut Duurzaam Verpakken heeft aan TNO het verzoek gedaan een levenscyclusanalyse (LCA) uit te voeren naar de milieuimpact van draagtassen. Deze studie heeft het volgende tot doel: - Het inzicht geven in en het vergelijken van de milieuimpact van verschillende draagtassen, zodat een kwantatieve vergelijking kan worden gemaakt, wat betreft de milieuimpact van verschillende typen draagtassen. - Het bepalen van het verschil in impact tussen eenmalig en meermalig gebruik van draagtassen; hierbij wordt het verschil in gebruik van de verschillende typen draagtassen meegenomen.

Based on the experience acquired in the Bergpolder Zuid district in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, this paper presents lessons learned so far on science-policy interactions supporting the adaptation to climate change in an urban district. Two types of integration issues were considered: (1) Integration within science including integration of disciplines, methods, models and data, and (2) integration between science and the local stakeholders' society, involving a synthesis of scientific and practical knowledge, linking sectors, governance arrangements and organisations. At first sight, the issues around integration within science and beyond the science of climate change adaptation in cities resemble those generally observed in science-policy integration. However, the relative newness of urban adaptation to climate change poses specific challenges for both the scientists and the stakeholders involved in the process. The Rotterdam example discusses the use of multiple means of integration for enhancing integration between scientific disciplines and integration between scientific and stakeholder knowledge.

At the beginning of 2009 new space-borne observations of dry-air column-averaged mole fractions of atmospheric methane (XCH$_{4}$) became available from the Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observations–Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) instrument on board the Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT). Until April 2012 concurrent methane (CH$_{4}$) retrievals were provided by the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CartograpHY (SCIAMACHY) instrument on board the ENVironmental SATellite (ENVISAT). The GOSAT and SCIAMACHY XCH$_{4}$ retrievals can be compared during the period of overlap. We estimate monthly average CH$_{4}$ emissions between January 2010 and December 2011, using the TM5-4DVAR inverse modelling system. In addition to satellite data, high-accuracy measurements from the Cooperative Air Sampling Network of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA ESRL) are used, providing strong constraints on the remote surface atmosphere. We discuss five inversion scenarios that make use of different GOSAT and SCIAMACHY XCH$_{4}$ retrieval products, including two sets of GOSAT proxy retrievals processed independently by the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)/Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and the University of Leicester (UL), and the RemoTeC “Full- Physics” (FP) XCH$_{4}$ retrievals available from SRON/KIT. The GOSAT-based inversions show significant reductions in the root mean square (rms) difference between retrieved and modelled XCH$_{4}$, and require much smaller bias corrections compared to the inversion using SCIAMACHY retrievals, reflecting the higher precision and relative accuracy of the GOSAT XCH$_{4}$. Despite the large differences between the GOSAT and SCIAMACHY retrievals, 2-year average emission maps show overall good agreement among all satellitebased inversions, with consistent flux adjustment patterns, particularly across equatorial Africa and North America. Over North America, the satellite inversions result in a significant redistribution of CH$_{4}$ emissions from North-East to South-Central United States. This result is consistent with recent independent studies suggesting a systematic underestimation of CH$_{4}$ emissions from North American fossil fuel sources in bottom-up inventories, likely related to natural gas production facilities. Furthermore, all four satellite inversions yield lower CH$_{4}$ fluxes across the Congo basin compared to the NOAA-only scenario, but higher emissions across tropical East Africa. The GOSAT and SCIAMACHY inversions show similar performance when validated against independent shipboard and aircraft observations, and XCH$_{4}$ retrievals available from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON).

Particulate matter (PM) air quality in Europe has improved substantially over the past decades, but it still poses a significant threat to human health. Accurate regional scale maps of PM10 concentrations are needed for monitoring progress in mitigation strategies and monitoring compliance with statutory limit values. Chemistry transport models (CTM) use emission databases and simulate the transport and deposition of pollutants. They deliver such maps but are known to be inaccurate. A promising approach is to use geostatistics to model the relationship between the in situ observations and the CTM. This has been shown to be more accurate than using either observations or CTM's alone. This paper presents a spatially varying coefficients (SVC) geostatistical model as an extension of the standard spatially varying intercept (SVI) geostatistical model. SVC allowed the regression coefficient to vary spatially according to a covariance function, the parameters of which were estimated from the data. It was built as a Bayesian hierarchical model and implemented using Markov chain Monte Carlo. The procedure was applied to Airbase PM10 observations and LOTOS-EUROS simulated PM10 for central, southern and eastern Europe. Model-fit diagnostics showed that SVC delivered a better fit to the data than SVI. Mapping the spatially varying coefficients allowed identification of the locations where the CTM performed well or poorly. This could be used for objective CTM evaluation purposes. The posterior predictive simulations were also used to map median PM10 concentrations as well as the probability of exceeding the 50μgm-3 EU daily PM10 concentration threshold. Although posterior median prediction accuracy was similar for SVI and SVC, SVC better modelled the process and yielded narrower credible intervals. As such, SVC was more appropriate for quantifying uncertainty and for mapping threshold exceedances. The resulting maps may be used to guide air quality assessment and mitigation strategies, including those related to health impacts.

Land-based emissions of air pollutants in Europe have steadily decreased over the past two decades, and this decrease is expected to continue. Within the same time span emissions from shipping have increased in EU ports and in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, defined as SECAs (sulfur emission control areas), although recently sulfur emissions, and subsequently particle emissions, have decreased. The maximum allowed sulfur content in marine fuels in EU ports is now 0.1%, as required by the European Union sulfur directive. In the SECAs the maximum fuel content of sulfur is currently 1% (the global average is about 2.4%). This will be reduced to 0.1% from 2015, following the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules. In order to assess the effects of ship emissions in and around the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, regional model calculations with the EMEP air pollution model have been made on a 1/4° longitude × 1/8° latitude resolution, using ship emissions in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea that are based on accurate ship positioning data. The effects on depositions and air pollution and the resulting number of years of life lost (YOLLs) have been calculated by comparing model calculations with and without ship emissions in the two sea areas. In 2010 stricter regulations for sulfur emissions were implemented in the two sea areas, reducing the maximum sulfur content allowed in marine fuels from 1.5 to 1%. In addition ships were required to use fuels with 0.1 % sulfur in EU harbours. The calculations have been made with emissions representative of 2009 and 2011, i.e. before and after the implementation of the stricter controls on sulfur emissions from 2010. The calculations with present emissions show that per person, an additional 0.1-0.2 years of life lost is estimated in areas close to the major ship tracks with current emission levels. Comparisons of model calculations with emissions before and after the implementation of stricter emission control on sulfur show a general decrease in calculated particle concentration. At the same time, however, an increase in ship activity has resulted in higher emissions of other components, and subsequently air concentrations, in particular of NOx, especially in and around several major ports. Additional model calculations have been made with land-based and ship emissions representative of year 2030. Following a decrease in emissions from all sectors, air quality is expected to improve, and depositions to be reduced. Particles from shipping are expected to decrease as a result of emission controls in the SECAs. Further controls of NOx emissions from shipping are not decided, and calculations are presented with and without such controls.

We present a novel approach to study the organic composition of aerosol filter samples using thermal-desorption proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (TD-PTR-MS) in the laboratory. The method is tested and validated based on the comparison with in situ TD-PTR-MS measurements. In general, we observe correspondence within the levels of uncertainty between in situ and offline TD-PTR-MS measurements for compounds desorbing at temperatures above 100. °C and for quartz fiber filters that were sampled for more than one day. Positive sampling artifacts (50-80%, with respect to the in situ measurements) from adsorption of semivolatile organic gas phase compounds are apparent on filters sampled for one day. Detailed chemical analysis shows that these positive sampling artifacts are likely caused by primary emissions that have not been strongly oxidized. Negative sampling artifacts (7-35%, with respect to the in situ measurements) are observed for most filters sampled for two and three days, and potentially caused by incomplete desorption of aerosols (in particular, nitrogen-containing organics) from the filters during the offline measurements and chemical reactions on the filters. Chemicals/CAS: nitrogen, 7727-37-9; oxygen, 7782-44-7; silicon dioxide, 10279-57-9, 14464-46-1, 14808-60-7, 15468-32-3, 60676-86-0, 7631-86-9

The European KIC-Climate project Water and Energy for Climate Change (WE4CC) aims at the technical demonstration, business case evaluation and implementation of new value chains for the production of high-quality water using low-grade thermal waste energy from cooling water. A typical large-scale waste heat water network is the production of the boiler feed water from surface water using waste heat of temperatures below 60°C from power plants. Two innovative membrane distillation concepts for the production of high-quality water were evaluated for this case in terms of operational conditions, equipment size and costs which are dependent on the available amount of waste heat and its temperature. • Memstill® (partial use of waste heat, by partially cooling down cooling water such that the remaining heat can be reused for other applications, e.g. for the recovery of desiccant solutions) • MD-HEX, i.e. membrane distillation with an extra integrated heat envelope within the Memstill® module for full use of waste heat which is taken up by the produced water and/or the concentrate. Both Memstill® and MD-HEX behave as a demineralised water (demi-water) producing once-through cooler. Due to the utilisation of waste heat, much less electricity is needed for the production of demi-water relative to other water production technologies. Memstill® also behaves as a waste heat-consuming demi-water producing technology. Thus, significant reductions in cooling water intake, costs and GHG emissions can be achieved. © 2014 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.

Het Kennisinstituut Duurzaam Verpakken heeft aan TNO het verzoek gedaan een levenscyclusanalyse (LCA) uit te voeren naar de milieuimpact van draagtassen. Deze studie heeft het volgende tot doel: - Het inzicht geven in en het vergelijken van de milieuimpact van verschillende draagtassen, zodat een kwantatieve vergelijking kan worden gemaakt, wat betreft de milieuimpact van verschillende typen draagtassen. - Het bepalen van het verschil in impact tussen eenmalig en meermalig gebruik van draagtassen; hierbij wordt het verschil in gebruik van de verschillende typen draagtassen meegenomen.

Haar passie voor een duurzamere wereld begon met een grote liefde voor dieren. Gaandeweg breidde die belangstelling zich uit "Het energievraagstuk fascineert me enorm", vertelt Sophie Jongeneel

Land-based emissions of air pollutants in Europe have steadily decreased over the past two decades, and this decrease is expected to continue. Within the same time span emissions from shipping have increased in EU ports and in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, defined as SECAs (sulfur emission control areas), although recently sulfur emissions, and subsequently particle emissions, have decreased. The maximum allowed sulfur content in marine fuels in EU ports is now 0.1%, as required by the European Union sulfur directive. In the SECAs the maximum fuel content of sulfur is currently 1% (the global average is about 2.4%). This will be reduced to 0.1% from 2015, following the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules. In order to assess the effects of ship emissions in and around the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, regional model calculations with the EMEP air pollution model have been made on a 1/4° longitude × 1/8° latitude resolution, using ship emissions in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea that are based on accurate ship positioning data. The effects on depositions and air pollution and the resulting number of years of life lost (YOLLs) have been calculated by comparing model calculations with and without ship emissions in the two sea areas. In 2010 stricter regulations for sulfur emissions were implemented in the two sea areas, reducing the maximum sulfur content allowed in marine fuels from 1.5 to 1%. In addition ships were required to use fuels with 0.1 % sulfur in EU harbours. The calculations have been made with emissions representative of 2009 and 2011, i.e. before and after the implementation of the stricter controls on sulfur emissions from 2010. The calculations with present emissions show that per person, an additional 0.1–0.2 years of life lost is estimated in areas close to the major ship tracks with current emission levels. Comparisons of model calculations with emissions before and after the implementation of stricter emission control on sulfur show a general decrease in calculated particle concentration. At the same time, however, an increase in ship activity has resulted in higher emissions of other components, and subsequently air concentrations, in particular of NOx, especially in and around several major ports. Additional model calculations have been made with land-based and ship emissions representative of year 2030. Following a decrease in emissions from all sectors, air quality is expected to improve, and depositions to be reduced. Particles from shipping are expected to decrease as a result of emission controls in the SECAs. Further controls of NOx emissions from shipping are not decided, and calculations are presented with and without such controls.

Haar passie voor een duurzamere wereld begon met een grote liefde voor dieren. Gaandeweg breidde die belangstelling zich uit "Het energievraagstuk fascineert me enorm", vertelt Sophie Jongeneel

International audience; European CH 4 and N 2 O emissions are estimated for 2006 and 2007 using four inverse modelling systems, based on different global and regional Eulerian and La-grangian transport models. This ensemble approach is designed to provide more realistic estimates of the overall uncertainties in the derived emissions, which is particularly important for verifying bottom-up emission inventories. We use continuous observations from 10 European stations (including 5 tall towers) for CH 4 and 9 continuous stations for N 2 O, complemented by additional European and global discrete air sampling sites. The available observations mainly constrain CH 4 and N 2 O emissions from northwestern and eastern Europe. The inversions are strongly driven by the observations and the derived total emissions of larger countries show little dependence on the emission inventories used a priori. Three inverse models yield 26-56 % higher total CH 4 emissions from northwestern and eastern Europe compared Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 716 P. Bergamaschi et al.: Top-down estimates of European CH 4 and N 2 O emissions to bottom-up emissions reported to the UNFCCC, while one model is close to the UNFCCC values. In contrast, the inverse modelling estimates of European N 2 O emissions are in general close to the UNFCCC values, with the overall range from all models being much smaller than the UNFCCC uncertainty range for most countries. Our analysis suggests that the reported uncertainties for CH 4 emissions might be underestimated , while those for N 2 O emissions are likely overestimated .

Relatively little is known about long term effects of wood smoke on population health. A wood combustion marker - levoglucosan - was measured using a standardized sampling and measurement method in four European study areas (Oslo, The Netherlands, Munich/Augsburg, Catalonia) to assess within and between study area spatial variation. Levoglucosan was analyzed in addition to: PM2.5, PM2.5 absorbance, PM10, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), nitrogen oxides (NOx), elemental and organic carbon (EC/OC), hopanes, steranes and elemental composition. Measurements were conducted at street, urban and regional background sites. Three two-week samples were taken per site and the annual average concentrations of pollutants were calculated using continuous measurements at one background reference site. Land use regression (LUR) models were developed to explain the spatial variation of levoglucosan. Much larger within than between study area contrast in levoglucosan concentration was found. Spatial variation patterns differed from other measured pollutants: PM2.5, NOx and EC. Levoglucosan had the highest spatial correlation with σPAH (r. = 0.65) and the lowest with traffic markers - NOx, σhopanes/steranes (r. = -. 0.22). Levoglucosan concentrations in the cold (heating) period were between 3 and 20 times higher compared to the warm period. The contribution of wood-smoke calculated based on levoglucosan measurements and previous European emission data to OC and PM2.5 mass was 13 to 28% and 3 to 9% respectively in the full year. Larger contributions were calculated for the cold period.The median model R2 of the LUR models was 60%. The LUR models included population and natural land related variables. In conclusion, substantial spatial variability was found in levoglucosan concentrations within study areas. Wood smoke contributed substantially to especially wintertime PM2.5 OC and mass. The low to moderate correlation with PM2.5 mass and traffic markers offers the potential to assess health effects of wood smoke separate from traffic-related air pollution. Chemicals/CAS: carbon, 7440-44-0; levoglucosan, 498-07-7; nitrogen oxide, 11104-93-1

European CH4 and N2O emissions are estimated for 2006 and 2007 using four inverse modelling systems, based on different global and regional Eulerian and Lagrangian transport models. This ensemble approach is designed to provide more realistic estimates of the overall uncertainties in the derived emissions, which is particularly important for verifying bottom-up emission inventories. We use continuous observations from 10 European stations (including 5 tall towers) for CH4 and 9 continuous stations for N2O, complemented by additional European and global discrete air sampling sites. The available observations mainly constrain CH4 and N2O emissions from north-western and eastern Europe. The inversions are strongly driven by the observations and the derived total emissions of larger countries show little dependence on the emission inventories used a priori. Three inverse models yield 26-56% higher total CH4 emissions from north-western and eastern Europe compared to bottom-up emissions reported to the UNFCCC, while one model is close to the UNFCCC values. In contrast, the inverse modelling estimates of European N2O emissions are in general close to the UNFCCC values, with the overall range from all models being much smaller than the UNFCCC uncertainty range for most countries. Our analysis suggests that the reported uncertainties for CH4 emissions might be underestimated, while those for N2O emissions are likely overestimated.

Despite all international, national and local initiatives to mitigate climate change, a certain degree of climate change is unavoidable. Urban environments in particular seem vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. How can cities, which are dynamic systems where most people live and work, prepare for such changes in climate? In the Netherlands, the Climate Proof Cities (CPC) research program (2010-2014) was established, aimed at: "strengthening the adaptive capacity and reducing the vulnerability of the urban system against climate change and to develop strategies and policy instruments for adapting our cities and buildings". The program has contributed to the knowledge on assessing vulnerability of cities, on adaptation options and their effectiveness, and on governance of adaptation. Important features are the role of green infrastructures in combination with available water, improved building designs and collaboration between urban planners and water managers. Nonetheless, in spite of this effort and many other national and international efforts, research in these fields is still in its infancy, and much remains to be done. The broad scope of the CPC research program incited the establishment of this Special Issue. In addition, also papers from other researchers have been added to this Special Issue, in an attempt to provide a valuable - albeit inexhaustive - view on the challenges and achievements in adaptation of cities to climate change.

Despite all international, national and local initiatives to mitigate climate change, a certain degree of climate change is unavoidable. Urban environments in particular seem vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. How can cities, which are dynamic systems where most people live and work, prepare for such changes in climate? In the Netherlands, the Climate Proof Cities (CPC) research program (2010-2014) was established, aimed at: "strengthening the adaptive capacity and reducing the vulnerability of the urban system against climate change and to develop strategies and policy instruments for adapting our cities and buildings". The program has contributed to the knowledge on assessing vulnerability of cities, on adaptation options and their effectiveness, and on governance of adaptation. Important features are the role of green infrastructures in combination with available water, improved building designs and collaboration between urban planners and water managers. Nonetheless, in spite of this effort and many other national and international efforts, research in these fields is still in its infancy, and much remains to be done. The broad scope of the CPC research program incited the establishment of this Special Issue. In addition, also papers from other researchers have been added to this Special Issue, in an attempt to provide a valuable - albeit inexhaustive - view on the challenges and achievements in adaptation of cities to climate change.

TNO has carried out a high resolution 3D seismic survey off-shore Rotterdam. The new deployment concept that was tested with this survey results in high-quality 3D images of the shallow subsurface at relatively low cost, particularly in comparison with conventional 3D seismic data acquisition. Initially, the pilot survey aims to demonstrate the use of high-resolution 3D seismic for risk assessment and monitoring in CO2 storage. However, it is expected that the technology will ultimately be applied in a much wider range of activities. A first review of the data shows that this data acquisition concept will be very well suited for identification, delineation, and characterization of shallow gas presence for exploration and hazard assessment purposes.