The Flemish Region in Northern Belgium is one of the areas that suffers from air pollution levels that rank among the highest in Europe. At the same time, the effects of global climate change are being felt increasingly in Flanders.
Atmospheric models are crucial tools for climate and air quality policy support, as only models can calculate prognoses and scenarios; 3-D prognostic computer models are the best available instruments. However, the use of these models has been limited to academic research purposes. Due to their complexity and computation intensive character, they are rarely run for long enough periods to be of policy relevance.
The objective of this research proposal is to substantially improve and verify existing 3-D regional prognostic atmospheric grid models, and to develop strategies for their effective implementation as policy support tools. The main targeted policy domains are those of air quality and climate change impacts; the support of the principal stakeholders in these domains in Flanders having been secured.
In the first phase of the project, most activities will concentrate on improving simulations of regional- and local-scale secondary aerosol formation, the hydrologic cycle, and biosphere-atmosphere interaction processes. Moreover, data assimilation techniques will be implemented for certain hydrologic parameters as well as for atmospheric trace gas and particle concentrations.
In the second phase, the focus will be on enhancing the applicability of the considered models for policy support purposes, and on demonstrating their potential through case studies. Among other things, the latter will deal with the effects of climate change projections on atmospheric pollution. Also, long simulations will be performed with the regional climate and air quality models, up to ten years for simulation domains covering Flanders at a resolution of three kilometres.
The CLIMAQS project is carried out with support of
IWT.
