Atmospheric emissions from road transport have increased all around the world since 1990 more rapidly than from other pollution sources. Moreover, they contribute to more than 25% of total emissions in the majority of the European Countries. This situation confirms the importance of road transport when complying with emission ceilings (e.g. Kyoto Protocol and National Emissions Ceilings Directive). A methodology has been developed to evaluate the effect of transport measures on atmospheric emissions (EmiTRANS). Its application to Spain in the horizon of 2020 allows the quantification of the effect of several measures on emission reductions. This quantification was done through scenario development. Several scenarios were calculated considering technical measures (e.g. vehicle scrapping systems, higher penetration of hybrid and electric vehicles, fuel substitution, etc.) and non-technical measures (mileage reduction, implementation of Low Emission Zones and/or Congestion Charges in main cities, reduction of average speeds, logistical improvements that affects heavy duty vehicle load factors, etc.). The scenarios show the effect of each measure on NOx, SO2, CO, PM10, PM2.5, VOC, CO2 and CH4 emissions. The main conclusion is the necessity to combine both technical and non-technical measures to increase global effectiveness. In the analysis of specific pollutants, there is a great dispersion on reductions effect: technical measures are more effective to reduce air pollutants while non-technical measures are better options to reduce greenhouse effect gases (even though they also reduce air pollutants in a less efficient way).

Human health problems and solutions. Urban gardening has spread worldwide in recent years as it enhances food security and selfsupply and promotes community integration. However urban soils are significantly enriched in trace elements relative to background levels. Exposure to the soil in urban gardens may therefore result in adverse health effects depending on the degree of contact during gardening, infant recreational activities and ingestion of vegetables grown in them. In order to evaluate this potential risk, 36 composite samples were collected from the top 20 cm of the soil of 6 urban gardens in Madrid. The aqua regia (pseudototal) and glycine-extractable (bioaccessible) concentrations of Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Additionally, pH, texture, Fe, Ca, and Mn concentrations, and organic matter and calcium carbonate contents were determined in all urban gardens and their influence on trace element bioaccessibility was analyzed.

Emission inventories are databases that aim to describe the polluting activities that occur across a certain geographic domain. According to the spatial scale, the availability of information will vary as well as the applied assumptions, which will strongly influence its quality, accuracy and representativeness. This study compared and contrasted two emission inventories describing the Greater Madrid Region (GMR) under an air quality simulation approach. The chosen inventories were the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) and the Regional Emissions Inventory of the Greater Madrid Region (REI). Both of them were used to feed air quality simulations with the CMAQ modelling system, and the results were compared with observations from the air quality monitoring network in the modelled domain. Through the application of statistical tools, the analysis of emissions at cell level and cell – expansion procedures, it was observed that the National Inventory showed better results for describing on – road traffic activities and agriculture, SNAP07 and SNAP10. The accurate description of activities, the good characterization of the vehicle fleet and the correct use of traffic emission factors were the main causes of such a good correlation. On the other hand, the Regional Inventory showed better descriptions for non – industrial combustion (SNAP02) and industrial activities (SNAP03). It incorporated realistic emission factors, a reasonable fuel mix and it drew upon local information sources to describe these activities, while NEI relied on surrogation and national datasets which leaded to a poorer representation. Off – road transportation (SNAP08) was similarly described by both inventories, while the rest of the SNAP activities showed a marginal contribution to the overall emissions.

Mediterranean Basin ecosystems, their unique biodiversity, and the key services they provide are currently at risk due to air pollution and climate change, yet only a limited number of isolated and geographically-restricted studies have addressed this topic, often with contrasting results. Particularities of air pollution in this region include high O3 levels due to high air temperatures and solar radiation, the stability of air masses, and dominance of dry over wet nitrogen deposition. Moreover, the unique abiotic and biotic factors (e.g., climate, vegetation type, relevance of Saharan dust inputs) modulating the response of Mediterranean ecosystems at various spatiotemporal scales make it difficult to understand, and thus predict, the consequences of human activities that cause air pollution in the Mediterranean Basin

A module to estimate risks of ozone damage to vegetation has been implemented in the Integrated Assessment Modelling system for the Iberian Peninsula. It was applied to compute three different indexes for wheat and Holm oak; daylight AOT40 (cumulative ozone concentration over 40 ppb), cumulative ozone exposure index according to the Directive 2008/50/EC (AOT40-D) and PODY (Phytotoxic Ozone Dose over a given threshold of Y nmol m−2 s−1). The use of these indexes led to remarkable differences in spatial patterns of relative ozone risks on vegetation. Ozone critical levels were exceeded in most of the modelling domain and soil moisture content was found to have a significant impact on the results. According to the outputs of the model, daylight AOT40 constitutes a more conservative index than the AOT40-D. Additionally, flux-based estimations indicate high risk areas in Portugal for both wheat and Holm oak that are not identified by AOT-based methods.

Noise pollution is a pervasive factor that increasingly threatens natural resources and human health worldwide. In particular, large-scale changes in road networks have driven shifts in the acoustic environment of rural landscapes during the past few decades. Using sampling plots from the Spanish Landscape Monitoring System (SISPARES), 16 km2 each, we modelled the spatio-temporal changes in road traffic noise pollution in Ecoregion 1 of Spain (approximately 66,000 km2). We selected a study period that was characterised by significant changes in the size of the road network and the vehicle fleet (i.e. between 1995 and 2014) and used standard and validated acoustic computation methods for environmental noise modelling (i.e. European Directive, 2002/49/EC) within sampling plots. We then applied a multiple linear regression to expand noise modelling throughout the whole of Ecoregion 1. Our results showed that the noise level increased by 1.7 dB(A) in average per decade in approximately 65% of the territory, decreased by 1.3 dB(A) per decade in about 33%, and remained unchanged in 2%. This suggests that road traffic noise pollution levels may not grow homogeneously in large geographical areas, maybe due to the concentration of large fast traffic flows on modern motorways connecting towns. Our research exemplifies how landscape monitoring systems such as cost-effective approaches may play an important role when assessing spatio-temporal patterns and the impact of anthropogenic noise pollution at large geographical scales, and even more so in a global context of constricted resources and limited availability of historical data on traffic and environmental noise monitoring.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) concentrations in PM10 and PM2.5 particles were measured at 14 monitoring sites (12 for PM10 and 2 for PM2.5), located in the Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica, from January to November 2013. High-volume air samplers with pretreated quartz filters were used to collect the particles. The analytical determination was carried out using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The most abundant PAHs were benzo[a]anthracene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene and acenaphthylene. Ratios obtained by correlating the concentration of some PAHs, both PM10 and PM2.5, suggest that gasoline and diesel vehicles are the main sources in the area being studied. This is consistent with the results obtained when applying the positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis, since vehicles accounted for 62–74% of total emissions in the area; burning wood fuel was the second source of emissions, contributing between 7 and 15%; and road dust was third, with almost 8%. | Se midieron las concentraciones de hidrocarburos aromáticos policíclicos (HAP) en partículas PM10 y PM2.5 en 14 sitios de monitoreo (12 para PM10 y 2 para PM2.5), ubicados en el Área Metropolitana de Costa Rica, de enero a noviembre de 2013. Alto volumen Se utilizaron muestreadores de aire con filtros de cuarzo pretratados para recoger las partículas. La determinación analítica se realizó mediante cromatografía líquida de alta resolución (HPLC). Los HAP más abundantes fueron benzo [a] antraceno, indeno (1,2,3-cd) pireno, dibenz [a, h] antraceno y acenaftileno. Los ratios obtenidos al correlacionar la concentración de algunos HAP, tanto de PM10 como de PM2,5, sugieren que los vehículos de gasolina y diésel son las principales fuentes en el área de estudio. Esto es consistente con los resultados obtenidos al aplicar el análisis de factorización matricial positiva (PMF), ya que los vehículos representaron 62-74% de las emisiones totales en el área; la quema de leña fue la segunda fuente de emisiones, contribuyendo entre el 7 y el 15%; y el polvo de la carretera ocupó el tercer lugar, con casi el 8%. | Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica | Laboratorio de Análisis Ambiental. Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales. Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica

A multiresidue method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 31 emerging contaminants (pharmaceutical compounds, hormones, personal care products, biocides and flame retardants) in aquatic plants. Analytes were extracted by ultrasound assisted-matrix solid phase dispersion (UA-MSPD) and determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after sylilation. The method was validated for different aquatic plants (Typha angustifolia, Arundo donax and Lemna minor) and a semiaquatic cultivated plant (Oryza sativa) with good recoveries at concentrations of 100 and 25 ng g-1 wet weight, ranging from 70 to 120 %, and low method detection limits (0.3 to 2.2 ng g-1 wet weight). A significant difference of the chromatographic response was observed for some compounds in neat solvent versus matrix extracts and therefore quantification was carried out using matrix-matched standards in order to overcome this matrix effect. Aquatic plants taken from rivers located at three Spanish regions were analyzed and the compounds detected were parabens, bisphenol A, benzophenone-3, cyfluthrin and cypermethrin. The levels found ranged from 6 to 25 ng g-1 wet weight except for cypermethrin that was detected at 235 ng g-1 wet weight in Oryza sativa samples.