Overview of the European project FUMAPEX

The quality of the urban air pollution forecast crit- ically depends on the mapping of emissions, the urban air pollution models, and the meteorological data. The quality of the meteorological data should be largely enhanced by us- ing downscaled data from advanced numerical weather pre- diction models. These different topics, as well as the ap- plication of population exposure models, have traditionally been treated in distinct scientific communities whose exper- tise needs to be combined to enhance the possibilities of fore- casting air pollution episodes in European cities. For this purpose the EU project "Integrated Systems for Forecasting Urban Meteorology, Air Pollution and Population Exposure" (FUMAPEX) (http://fumapex.dmi.dk), involving 22 organi- zations from 10 European countries, was initiated. The main objectives of the project are the improvement of meteorolog- ical forecasts for urban areas, the connection of numerical weather prediction models to urban air pollution and popu- lation exposure models, the building of improved Urban Air Quality Information and Forecasting Systems, and their ap- plication in cities in various European climates. This paper overviews the project items and first two-years results, it is an introduction to the whole ACP issue. ity (UAQ) is still considered as a problem especially during short-term episodes that occur during adverse meteorologi- cal conditions, causing exceedances of short-term air quality standards (e.g. during episodes in 1995 in London NO2 ex- ceeded 400 ppb). Short-term pollution episodes are presently one of the major concerns for the protection of human health in urban environment. This has lead to the introduction of EU Air Quality Directives to abate adverse health effects of air pollution to European citizens. The new EU air quality standards to be implemented by 2005 and 2010 will focus even more on episode prevention and forecasting. Moreover, a reliable urban scale forecast of air flows and meteorolog- ical fields is of primary support for urban emergency man- agement systems for accidental toxic releases, fires, or even chemical, radioactive, or biological substance releases due to terrorist actions, the potential risk of which has been recently emerged.