Support to Global Environmental Research
Objectives
Rapid changes in the demographic and economic situations in Asia will cause drastic changes in the local and global environment. An increase in energy consumption will bring about an increase in air pollutants such as SO2 and NOx.
These gases can cause serious damage to human health and to the environment, not only in the country in which they are generated, but also in neighboring countries through long-distance transport.
In order to promote the adoption of countermeasures, it is necessary to precisely predict emissions of air pollutants in each region and their impacts. Air pollutant emission inventories have been developed for Asia for the purpose of analyzing emission structures.
Outline
Emissions are estimated on the basis of information gathered by various technologies, including data on fuel combustion technologiesムremoval technology, production processes, technological level, and energy consumption by fuelsムas well as socioeconomic data related to energy consumption, such as population, industrial outputs, and number of employees. These data are used in conjunction with a geographic information system (GIS) to estimate the spatial distribution of emissions.
Outputs
Emission inventories have been compiled for China, India, and Korea according to region and sector for 1990 and 1995. Digital maps showing total emissions per administrative region and emissions per unit area have been produced. As examples, the 1995 distributions of SO2 and NOx emissions per km2 are shown.

GIS output: annual SO2 emissions per km2

GIS output: annual NOx emissions per km2

Updated: November 2, 2006