Short introduction

ATMOSYS is a LIFE+ Environment Policy & Governance project co-financed by the European Commission. The project began on the 1st September 2010 and will be completed at the end of 2013.

The overall objective of the project is to set up, evaluate and demonstrate an advanced and comprehensive air quality modelling system and associated web-based service, containing novel elements specifically designed for air pollution policy support in hot spot regions. The system will be established for the European hotspot region of Flanders, north Belgium by VITO (Belgian scientific research institution) together with the Flemish Environment Agency (VMM).

Recently the cost to the Flemish region of Northern Belgium has been estimated at several hundred million euros per year (Bossuyt et al., 2007), among other things by increased absence at work caused by respiratory disease. The European Commission (Amann et al., 2005) has estimated that in hot-spot areas, owing to the effect of anthropogenic fine particulate matter (PM2.5) alone, there is an associated loss in life expectancy of up to 12-36 months per individual, as compared to values of 2-9 months elsewhere in Europe.

The established system will be based on advanced technology, including prognostic 3-D atmospheric computer models, and on results from recent and on-going national and European research projects. Its comprehensive character will reside in the multiple scales covered and in a coherent approach for forecasts, assessments, and scenario studies alike