Abstract:
The living environment of human beings and, obviously, the atmospheric composition has a great impact for the quality of life and human health. Air Quality (AQ) is a key element of European citizens’ wellbeing and quality of life. The objectives of the present work are to conduct reliable, comprehensive and detailed studies of the impact of lower atmosphere composition on the quality of life and health risks for the population in the city of Sofia. The performed numerical simulations with the US EPA Models-3 system are for 12 years from 2008- 2019 and calculated on five domains: Europe, Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria, Sofia Municipality and Sofia City with increasing space resolution – from 81 km (Europe) to 1 km (Sofia City). The System is based on the well-known models WRF (Meso- Meteorological Model) and US EPA dispersion model CMAQ (Chemical Transport Model). As emission input the TNO data is used for the two biggest domains. For the 3 Bulgarian domains the current emission inventory prepared by Bulgarian environmental authorities is exploited.