Project record of Polluting atmospheric particles along the French-Flemish North Sea coast: border transports and impact on the environment. Transborder cooperation and sensitization

Information

Type

Project

Name

Polluting atmospheric particles along the French-Flemish North Sea coast: border transports and impact on the environment. Transborder cooperation and sensitization

Acronym

AEROSOL

Description @en

The objectives of the project are: -to identify the largest particulate and gaseous emission sources in the border region of the Westhoek and Nord/Pas-de-Calais, in the Dunkerque agglomeration in particular; -tracking the transborder transports of air pollution and their influence on the environment; -testing optical methods and satellite detection to track plumes; -to evaluate the fluxes of aerosol-deposition in the border region and the nearby coastal sea; -to investigate the reactivity of polluting atmospheric particles with the marine environment; -the quantification of the background concentrations caused by industrial and urban sectors and by road traffic, via a fixed measuring station at the utmost easterly border of the study area in Northern France; -to further develop the meteorology of particles smaller than 10 µm (PM10) and those smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), and of heavy metals; -initiating cooperation and exchange relations; -to inform and sensitize the industrial sector, the authorities and the public at large. The project was initiated in January 1998 and runs until the end of December 2001. The European Union, the Ministry of the Flanders and the Province of West Flanders have financed the Flemish contribution to the project since July 1999.

Start date

1998-1

End date

2001-12