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In the framework of COST, an international action has been conducted aimed at increasing knowledge of, and the accessibility to, the main meteorological parameters which determine urban pollution levels. The action was designated initiated COST 715.
COST 715 follows a previous action, COST 710, concerning "Harmonisation in the pre-processing of meteorological data for dispersion models".
The present page is the entry to a set of Web pages concerning COST 715 (Urban Meteorology). Another set of Web pages concerns COST 710 (Harmonisation in pre-processing). These two sets of pages are maintained by the Department of Atmospheric Environment, NERI which has been one of the participating institutions in both actions.
COST is the acronyme (in French) for "European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research". It is a framework for international research and development cooperation, allowing to coordinate national research at European level. COST does not fund research as such, but coordination of research. COST includes as member states countries from the European Union, and a number of other European countries. More information is available at the official COST site. See also the section later on this page on COST links.
The requirements of the framework Directive on air quality assessment and management introduce real practical problems for the meteorological community. For example some of the meteorological variables needed in urban air pollution assessments are not routinely measured. In normal circumstances the number of meteorological stations in urban areas is limited to a few sites often just at airports.
COST 715 on "Meteorology applied to Urban Air Pollution Problems" was set up to review these problems. It was a European wide project involving 19 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and one non-COST country institute: the Meteorological and Geophysical Service of Macao. The basic aim was to be able to advise air pollution modellers on the most appropriate meteorological data for use in their urban dispersion models. They require meteorological data for annual averages, and for percentile concentrations. Methods for obtaining this data can involve extrapolation/interpolation of data within and outside a city, commissioning site specific data where appropriate, semi-empirical corrections to routine data collected at standard meteorological sites, numerical models describing the mesoscale flow and the use of physical models.
COST 715 started in September 1998 and continued to March 2004.
Two other previous COST actions are related to COST 715, namely
There are several review papers available concerning COST 715, see below.
There are several review papers available concerning COST 715:
A workshop entitled "Preparation of Meteorological Input
Data for Urban Site Studies" was held in Prague on June 15, 2000.
The proceedings of this Workshop have been published as a COST 715 report:
Preparation of meteorological input data for urban site studies, 2001, edited by
M Schatzmann, J Brechler and B Fisher, COST 715 Report EUR 19446, Luxembourg Office
for Official Publications of the European Communities.
There is more information on the set of web pages
maintained by the Czech organizer.
Note also, that at series of conferences on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes there have been presentations from participants in COST 715 on their work. Information on the proceedings of these conferences - as well as many full text papers - are available at http://www.harmo.org/conferences/proceedings/Proceed_intro.asp
The chairman of COST 715 was Bernard Fisher, UK Environment Agency
The scientific secretary of COST 715 was Pavol Nejedlik, COST Office.
Within COST 715 there were four working groups:
The report of Progress (PDF format) from April 2002 contains some comments on the field of work of the various working groups. There is more up-to-date information on the home pages of the respective working groups.
The chairman of COST 715 was Bernard Fisher, UK Environment Agency (UK).
The scientific secretary of COST 715 was Pavol Nejedlik, COST Office.
The addresses of the persons mentioned are as follows:
Nejedlik, Pavol
COST Office
Av. Louise 149 ( 21/30 )
B-1050 Brussels
BELGIUM
Tel:+32 2 5333830
Fax:+32 2 5333890
E-mail: pnejedlik@cost.esf.org
Fisher, Bernard
Nat. Centre for Risk Analysis & Options Appraisal
The Environment Agency
Steel House, 11 Tothill St.
London SW1H 9NF
U.K.
Tel: +44 20 7664 6970
Fax: +44 20 7664 6911
E-mail: bernard.fisher@environment-agency.gov.uk
Kukkonen, Jaakko
Finnish Meteorological Institute
Air Quality Research
Sahaajankatu 20 E
FIN-00810 Helsinki
Finland
Tel: +358 9 1929 5405 or 358 9 1929 5450 (direct)
Fax: +358 9 1929 5403
E-mail: Jaakko.Kukkonen@fmi.fi
Piringer, Martin
Zentralanstalt fr Meteorologie und Geodynamik
Abteilung Umweltmeteorologie
Hohe Warte 38
1190 Wien
Austria
E-mail: piringer@zamg.ac.at
Rotach, Mathias
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
GIETH
Winterthurerstrasse 190
CH-8057 Zürich
Switzerland
Tel: +41 1 635 52 22
Fax: +41 1 362 51 97
E-mail: rotach@geo.umnw.ethz.ch
Schatzmann, Michael
Meteorological Institute
University of Hamburg
Bundesstrasse 55
D-20146 Hamburg 13
Germany
Tel: +49 40 41235090
Fax: +49 40 41173350
E-mail: schatzmann@dkrz.d400.de
Related pages
COST 710 homepage ("Harmonization in the
pre-processing of meteorological data for dispersion models")
Initiative on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory
Purposes
This page is maintained by Helge Rørdam
Olesen
It was last modified on April 28, 2006
Published by the Department of Atmospheric Environment, National Environmental Research Institute (Denmark)