ICAROS: AN INTEGRATED COMPUTATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR THE ASSIMILATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DATA AND MODELS FOR URBAN AND REGIONAL AIR QUALITY

摘要

Integrated environmental management in urban areas is nowadays considered a sine qua non objective of Community and national environmental and development policies. A large amount of scientific information on the state of the environment is now available from a large pool of data sources. This work presents an innovative method for integration of these data sources and effective coupling of environmental information with appropriate models and decision-support tools. State-of-the-art Earth observation techniques, ground-based air quality measurements, atmospheric transport and chemical modelling, and multi-criteria decision-aid systems are used in an integrated information fusion environment in support of environmental and health impact assessment and decision-making at the urban and regional scales. Results of the pilot application of the method in the area of Lombardy in Northern Italy demonstrate the validity and usefulness of this novel approach.