Application of the DPSIR framework to air quality approaches

Abstract

Current air quality legislation in Europe will lead to substantial air quality improvements, but without further emission control efforts, the most critical hotspots will persist, with important impacts on the environment and human health. Integrated assessment models (IAM) can be applied to local and regional scale to support the assessment of mitigation opportunities and decision-making process. The mitigation measures need to be sustainable, and subsequently, social, economic, and environmental factors need to be balanced. This paper proposes the use of the well-known DPSIR framework, which is composed by Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impacts, and Responses. The urban area of Porto (Northern Portugal) is the selected case study, and DPSIR radar charts are used to easily compare different IAM approaches and help researchers and policy-makers to achieve the objective of air quality improvement. Results indicate that the MAPLIA system based on scenario approach and the RIAT+ system based on optimization approach provide more detailed and comprehensive information, namely concerning health (Impacts), then the previously designed Porto’s air quality plans