air quality management database - europa · 2010-06-04 · analysis of notifications –...

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AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DATABASE:

ANNEX OF UBA REPORT (05/2010)

"NOTIFICATIONS FOR TIME EXTENSION"

Analysis of notifications – Error! Style not defined.

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1 ANNEX: DESCRIPTION OF THE DATABASE

In addition to the present report, a Microsoft Access database is provided which contains information on the air quality situation and air quality management. The information was compiled from the official notification documents, which have already been made publicly available on the website of the European Commission, DG Environment:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/legislation/time_extensions.htm

The database is intended for officials and specialists in the area of air quality planning. It helps answering specific questions related to air quality planning, such as:

� What are typical measures taken on a certain scale when targeting a certain source?

� What are the effects of measures in various situations?

� What are typical time scales and funding available?

Information was mainly taken from the submitted Excel forms, following the structure suggested in Staff Working Paper SEC(2008)2132. Additional informa-tion was entered, which had been provided separately by the Member States. E.g., data from Air quality plans or clarifications by Member States were also taken into account.

Not all submitted information is provided in the database. E.g. information on the reasons for non-compliance or the implementation of other directives was not included. Some information was translated into English. However, not all in-formation, e.g. description of measures, was translated.

Some entries were removed because they were not provided in a compatible format. E.g. some Member States did not provide projections of pollutant levels in the suggested way. Only those entries were kept which were compatible with the suggested format or for which it was possible to convert them.

Some entries are missing and marked as N/A. This means that the information is either not applicable in the context (e.g. information related to NO2, in case of a PM10 notification), or the information was not available. Even where the infor-mation is not available in the context of the database, it may still have been pro-vided by the Member State using other means (modified Excel forms, descrip-tive text, referenced studies etc.).

Data from notification documents

Data from Excel files

Update of data entries


1.1 Getting started

The database is started by opening the file AQM_database_1005.mdb in Micro-soft Access.

The start menu is opened (see Figure 1). The main menu contains buttons lead-ing to various queries (described further below). The tab in the left section of the Microsoft Access window contains links to various tables, queries, reports and the start menu.

Figure 1: Database with start menu.

1.2 Components of the database

The database consists of the following components:

� Tables: The tables mirror the data submitted with the notifications. These tables were structured primarily with a view to facilitating the assessment of time extension notifications. Therefore, the tables are not primarily used to answer questions related to air quality management across Member States. For the analysis and for answering specific questions, the tables were combined into queries.

� Queries: These combine information from several tables. E.g. in the original tables, information on the Member State is provided in Form 1, whereas information on pub-lications in provided in the Annex to Form 1. In the Query “01 – Publications” the two are combined. The user may scroll through queries or use the “search”, “sort” and “filter” functions to answer specific questions related to air quality management (see examples, below).

� Pivot charts: All queries can be displayed in a “chart” mode. One example chart is included in the database.

� Reports: The reports summarise data stored in the queries.



1.3 Background information: tables

As already stated above, tables contain the data submitted with the time exten-sion notifications. The user does not need to directly work with tables. For more convenient use, several tables have been combined into queries (see further below). If the user wants to visualize the relations between the various tables, the user can click on “database tools” – “relations” in the Microsoft Access menu bar (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Relations between tables in the database. For example, the tables “01 – Annex – Publications” and “01 – Notification document” are linked by an ID. Each

entry in table “01 – Annex – Publications” contains an “ID of the Excel file”.

This ID defines which Excel file (=notification document) the entry

corresponds to.

1.4 Options in the start menu: Getting an overview

In the following sections, the options (buttons) found in the start menu are de-scribed.

1.4.1 Query: List of publications

When clicking on the button “Query: List of publications” in the main menu, a query is opened which contains information on the publications provided by the Member States during the notification process (Figure 3).


Figure 3: Query: List of publications.

In this query, the user can search for publications using the “search” function in the upper right corner. The user can also apply the “sort” or “filter” functions by clicking on the heading of the query. In the figure below, as an example, the “fil-ter” option was used to display all publications from the Member State “NL” (Netherlands).

Figure 4: Filtered list of publications.



For most of the publications in the list, weblinks are provided. Publications which are not available online were submitted together with the official notifica-tion for time extension. These documents can be obtained by downloading the notification information (zip files for the various Member States) from the follow-ing website:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/legislation/time_extensions.htm

1.4.2 Report: List of publications

In order to view or print the entries in the query “01 – Query - Publications”, a report template is provided. When clicking on the button “Report: List of publica-tions”, a report page is opened which summarises the main information of the report.

In order to view and print the reports from one Member State only, select “Filter – extended – special filter” in the Microsoft Access menu bar. You can then en-ter the code of the Member State in the “criteria” field. In the provided database, the code “DK” for Denmark has already been entered as an example. Once you have entered the code of the Member state, click on “filter on/off” in the Micro-soft Access menu bar.

Figure 5: Report: List of publications.

Selecting one Member State


1.4.3 Report: Notification documents

Similar to the report “List of publications”, a report is available which summa-rises the notification documents (see Figure 6). This report can be opened by clicking on the button “Report: Notification documents” in the start menu.

This report shows how the Member States organized their information. E.g. Belgium provided one notification document (Excel file) per region; Bulgaria provided one notification document per zone. This information is useful because all other data (e.g. exceedance situations, measures) is organized per notifica-tion document.

Figure 6: Report: Notification documents.



1.5 Options in the start menu: Analysis

In order to analyse air quality data, various queries are provided. The most use-ful ones are the query for exceedances and the query for measures.

1.5.1 Query: List of exceedances

After clicking on the button “Query: List of exceedances” in the start menu, a query is opened which contains information on the exceedance situations noti-fied by the Member States (zone, pollutant, name of the city/municipality, con-centration, area of exceedance etc.)

This query was used for the analyses presented in chapter Error! Reference source not found. of the present report. The user can browse through the list, apply the “search”, “sort” or “filter” functions (see section 1.4.2) or do more ad-vanced analyses using a pivot chart or pivot table. An example of a pivot chart and table is provided and described in section 1.5.3, below.

Figure 7: Query: List of exceedances.

Browsing or searching


1.5.2 Query: List of measures

Similar to the list of exceedances, a list of measures is provided in a query. This query can be accessed by clicking on the button “Query: List of measures” in the start menu. It contains roughly 5000 measures reported by the various Member States. Again, information in the query can be accessed using the “search”, “sort” or “filter” functions.

As an example, click on the triangle next to “Member State” in the header line. Select one of the Member States. All measures notified by this Member States will be displayed. Next, click on the triangle next to “Source sector” in the header line and select measures addressing a certain source sector.

1.5.3 Pivot chart: List of measures

Due to the large number of measures and fields, it is useful to apply pivot charts to summarise the analysis. Click on the button “Pivot chart: list of measures” in the start menu. A chart appears which summarises (as an example) the number of entries by selected Member States related to the time scale of reduction

(Figure 8).

The chart can now be adapted as follows:

� Click on the triangle next to “Member State” on the right and select various Member States.

� Click on the triangle next to “Is the measure regulatory” in the upper left corner and select regulatory measure, non-regulatory measures, or all measures.

� Click on the triangle next to “Time scale of reduction” in the lower left corner to select various time scales.

� Click on the icon “field list” in the upper left corner of the Microsoft Access menu bar. Drag the field “Administrative level” down into the graph, next to “Time scale of re-duction”. The graph now shows the various combinations of “Time scale of reduction” and “administrative level”.

� Drag the grey box “Time scale of reduction” out of the window with the graph. The graph now only shows the categories for “administrative level”.

To show the numerical values displayed in the graph, click on the triangle below the icon “view” in the left cor-

ner of the Microsoft Access menu bar and select “Pivot table view”. A table with numerical values appears (Figure 9). Such pivot tables were used as the input data for the analyses presented in chapter Error! Reference source not found. of this report.

Displaying measures from one Member State

Adapting the pivot chart

Pivot table



Figure 8: Pivot chart: measures.

Figure 9: Pivot table: measures.


1.6 Options in the start menu: Detailed research

The remaining queries of the database (data related to the source apportion-ment, baseline projections and details of measures) are organized under “de-tailed research” in the start menu.

These queries may be used for additional research and are briefly described below. Results from these queries are also presented in chapter Error! Refer-ence source not found. of this report.

1.6.1 Query: Source apportionment

This query summarises the source apportionment data from the various Mem-ber States. Because numerical values are required and not all categories were filled in all cases, the query contains empty cells.

This query may be used to search which sources were claimed in which ex-ceedance situations. It has to be noted that for a comparison, the entries have to be normalized. For the analyses in section Error! Reference source not found. of the present report, the numbers were either normalised (as percent of the total) or sorted according to the size of the contribution.

1.6.2 Query: Original baseline; Query: Extended baseline

These queries summarise the information related to the baseline level at the end of the original deadline and at the end of the extended deadline.

As an example analysis, click on the triangle next to the header “Annual mean concentration_r” (seventh column from the left) and sort the entries by size. This shows for which exceedance situations the highest regional background base-line concentrations are projected for the end of the extended deadline.

1.6.3 Query: Original measures (5A); Query: Extended measures (5B)

These queries give information about which measures were applied in which exceedance situations.

As an example, go the header line and filter one Member State. Select one ex-ceedance situation and check which codes of measures apply to this ex-ceedance situation. The codes can then be looked up under “Query: Measures”. Note that there is no direct link to the measures because there is a so-called “many-many” relationship between exceedance situations and measures. I.e., one exceedance situation requires several measures and one measures is ap-plied to several exceedance situations.

Example for searching for measures



1.6.4 Query: Types of measures

This query shows which measures have been considered by the Member States to cover the various types of measures required by Annex XV(B) of the air Quality Directive.

To find out which measure is taken by a certain Member State, e.g. related to retrofitting, filter the Member State in the heading of column 1 and look up the codes of measures in column 7. Then, the measure corresponding to this code can be looked up under ”Query: Measures”.

1.6.5 Query: Original measures (7A); Extended measures (7B)

These queries give information about projected emission reductions and effects of measures on air quality. In many cases, the information is not available com-pletely.

The entries “Implementation date” and “Date when the measure takes full ef-fect” may be useful for an analysis or comparison.

air quality management database - europa · 2010-06-04 · analysis of notifications –...

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