ARPA Piemonte — Regional Air Quality Detection System (SRRQA)

The service describes the location and main characteristics of the fixed stations related to the Regional Air Quality Detection System (SRRQA).The system, built by the Piedmont Region within the SIRA in collaboration with ARPA Piemonte and Piedmont Provinces, ensures the production of constantly updated and validated air quality information, to the competent institutional entities, operators in the sector and the public.The SRRQA consists of a certain number of fixed stations for the continuous detection of the main pollutants present in the atmosphere and mobile laboratories equipped to carry out short monitoring campaigns on sites without a fixed station. Fixed stations are located in the territory in such a way as to represent significantly the different environmental characteristics inherent in air quality.More in detail, referring to the provisions of Legislative Decree 155/2010 as amended, in relation to the prevailing emission type, the stations can be distinguished into:- traffic measurement stations, located in such a way as to measure mainly pollutants from vehicle emissions from adjacent roads with an average high traffic intensity; — background measurement stations, located in such a way as not to be influenced by a single source or by specific emission sources (heating, traffic, industries) but to be representative of pollution levels attributable to the integrated contribution of different sources;- industrial stations, responsible for detecting the contribution related to the adjacent industrial activities; instead, referring to the characteristics of the area in which the station is located, according to Legislative Decree 155/2010, it can be distinguished in:- fixed urban sampling sites: fixed sites located in continuously built areas or at least predominantly;- fixed suburban sampling sites: fixed sites included in largely built areas where both built-up and non-urbanised areas are present;- fixed rural sampling sites: fixed sites inserted in all areas other than those described above.Stations are equipped with measuring and sampling instruments that collect air from outside the cabin via one or more inert sampling lines. Depending on the pollutant to be collected, the instruments use a specific method as provided for in the current technical legislation. Instruments that measure directly on the external air sample generate an output signal that is recorded, as a concentration data, by the cab computer system.The measurements are generally carried out in ‘real time’ with the exception of those relating to particulate matter determined by gravimetric technique and those requiring chemical analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (IPA) such as benzo(a)pyrene and toxic metals (lead, nickel, arsenic and cadmium) in particulate matter. The data acquired automatically merges into several centres organised on a provincial basis (the C.O.P., Provincial Operating Centres) and subsequently is entered in a specific regional database. The data are subject to a first validation by the Provincial Department of Arpa in order to identify and exclude clearly abnormal situations, while for less obvious anomalies it is necessary to carry out evaluations of the data over longer time periods. The latter type of validation is defined as ‘second level validation’, preparatory to the certification and historicalisation of data.The public access to the information produced by the SSRQA is possible on the pages of the website http://www.sistemapiemonte.it/ambiente/srqa/conoscidati.shtml; Regione Piemonte has also active the service AriaWeb, https://secure.regione.piemonte.it/ambiente/aria/rilev/ariaweb/, a specialised system dedicated to domain experts that allows real-time access to all the information collected by the SRRQA and a service with free access: http://www.regione.piemonte.it/ambiente/aria/rilev/ariaday/ariaweb-new/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1&lang=it