Spatial and temporal disaggregation of natural emissions in urban areas inGreece for the period 2010–2013 and future projections

Özet

Emission inventories for particulate matter (PM2.5and PM2.5-10) from natural sources were created for theAthens and Thessaloniki metropolitan areas and the greater area of Volos for the period 2010–2013. The in-ventories include primary windblown dust emissions from agricultural and vacant lands, primary sea salt par-ticles emissions from the breaking of waves at the Sea Shore-surf zone and the bursting of bubbles from oceanicwhitecaps - Open Ocean, and emissions of BVOCs (Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds), precursor to PM. Theobjective of this work was to study the seasonal variation of natural PM emissions in the areas of interest andtheir spatial allocation. Weighting factors, specific to each pollutant, source and area, were calculated for thedisaggregation of annual emissions to monthly and daily values and their allocation on high resolution grids.There was no significant seasonal variation observed in the natural PM emissions while BVOCs emissions wereincreased during the warm period due to the enhanced solar radiation and temperature. The results of thecalculations were compared to values of the period 2000–2010 and it was found that natural BVOCs emissionsduring the period 2010–2013 were enhanced compared to 2000–2010 whereas natural PM emissions havelowered. Moreover, the analysis focused on the effects from possible future changes in land cover and en-vironmental conditions to the temporal and spatial variation of natural emissions over the areas using specificscenarios.