Archives: Servizi

Action Plan

Tool for managing noise pollution The Action Plan is a tool aimed at managing noise pollution issues and their effects, including, where necessary, noise reduction measures. The measures of the Action Plan are left to the discretion of the competent authorities but must correspond to the priorities that may arise from exceeding the relevant limit values or other criteria chosen by the Member States. These noise reduction measures are applied in particular to the areas identified by the Strategic Noise Mapping. The entities required to prepare the Action Plan are agglomerations with more than 100’000 inhabitants and the companies and bodies managing public transport services with road axes on which more than 3’000’000 vehicles per year transit, railway axes on which more than 30’000 convoys per year transit and the main airports (update as of March 2024 on the implementation status of Directive 2002/49/EC pursuant to Legislative Decree 194/05). The authority identified by the Region or the Autonomous Province, on the basis of the results of the strategic noise maps, must prepare and transmit the Action Plan to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE). The Action Plans incorporate and update the noise containment and abatement plans produced for the operation of public transport services, the municipal noise reduction plans and the regional three-year intervention plans for noise pollution reclamation adopted pursuant to Articles 3, paragraph 1, letter i), 10, paragraph 5, 7 and 4, paragraph 2, of Law 447/1995. If the entities fail to prepare the plan, the Decree provides for penalties ranging from 30’000€ to 180’000€ for each month of delay. Both for the Action Plan and for the Strategic Noise Mapping, the competent Region or Autonomous Province will impose the administrative pecuniary sanctions provided for by the Decree. The validity of the Action Plan is 5 years.

Strategic Noise Mapping

Noise assessment tool for agglomerations Strategic Acoustic Mapping is the representation of data relating to an existing or predicted noise situation in an area, relating to a specific source, based on an acoustic descriptor. The acoustic descriptor indicates whether the current limits have been exceeded, the number of people exposed in a given area, or the number of dwellings exposed to certain values in a given area. Strategic Noise Mapping is a tool for assessing noise in agglomerations. As indicated in Legislative Decree 194/2005, Strategic Noise Mapping is aimed at determining the overall exposure to noise in urban areas due to various sources. The next deadline for submitting this document has been set for June 30, 2027, and it must be reviewed or revised every five years. Agglomerations with more than 250’000 inhabitants are required to comply with Strategic Noise Mapping. If the competent entities fail to carry out the mapping, the Decree provides for administrative penalties for each month of delay.

Odour impact

Modelling assessment of odours The assessment of odour impact is an increasingly relevant element in environmental procedures, since odorous emissions generated by industrial activities, agri-food plants, waste treatment facilities or infrastructure can affect the quality of life of communities and limit land usability. TerrAria addresses odour impact through a modelling approach that makes it possible to estimate odour dispersion at local scale, assess predicted concentrations and verify the potential occurrence of odour nuisance at sensitive receptors. Models such as CALPUFF (non-steady-state Lagrangian model), applied with detailed meteorological data, make it possible to describe odour propagation under complex orographic and atmospheric conditions, translating odorous emissions into spatial and temporal scenarios useful for technical assessments and authorisation procedures. From a regulatory point of view, the main reference is Article 272-bis of Legislative Decree 152/2006, introduced by Legislative Decree 183/2017, which allows the competent authorities to prescribe specific measures to contain odorous emissions: concentration limits, maximum flow rates expressed in odour units, containment plans and location criteria according to the presence of exposed receptors. The objective is to prevent or mitigate persistent odour nuisance situations and ensure that production activities are compatible with urban planning instruments and the needs of the population. The measurement of odour impact is generally based on odour concentration expressed in OUe/m³ (European odour units), according to UNI EN 13725, which defines sampling and analysis methodologies through dynamic olfactometry. In the absence of a single national regulation on odour nuisance, several regions – including Lombardy, Piedmont and Apulia – have adopted guidelines that introduce reference values, often based on the annual 98th percentile of hourly concentrations (equivalent to 2% of the hours of the year). The Lombardy Region Guidelines on odours also specify the use of a coefficient equal to 2.3 (peak-to-mean) to obtain peak hourly concentrations from average hourly concentrations. Once concentrations have been estimated through the modelling approach, TerrAria processes the related odour dispersion maps, assessing compliance with the 98th percentile reference values and identifying any critical situations for sensitive receptors. By integrating modelling, UNI standards and regional references, TerrAria provides a complete assessment of odour impact, useful for planning, authorisations and defining effective measures to contain odorous emissions and reduce odour nuisance.

Health damage

Health risk assessment Integrated Environmental and Health Impact Assessment (IEHIA) and Health Damage Assessment (HDA) are fundamental tools for estimating the potential effects of environmental pressures on human health. TerrAria applies both methodologies within planning and authorisation procedures when it is necessary to quantify the health risk associated with exposure to atmospheric pollutants, toxic or carcinogenic substances. The objective is to provide a solid technical-scientific framework capable of correlating toxicological data with the level of population exposure, in order to identify higher-risk scenarios and define appropriate mitigation measures. Integrated Environmental and Health Impact Assessment represents an integrated approach that combines environmental information with health risk estimation, assessing impacts along the entire exposure pathway and considering different sensitive groups. HDA, required for plants subject to IEA (Integrated Environmental Authorization), evaluates the expected potential health damage in relation to the plant’s emission scenarios, integrating dispersion models, epidemiological indicators and toxicological data. The methodology adopted by TerrAria is based on recognised national and international guidelines: those of the US EPA, the World Health Organization (WHO), OEHHA, European legislation and the main Italian references such as ARPA Veneto, the Interministerial Decree of 24 April 2013 and the ISPRA Guidelines for Integrated Environmental and Health Impact Assessment. The analysis process includes source characterisation, identification of exposure pathways, estimation of exposure levels for different receptors and correlation with toxicological data specific to each contaminant. This makes it possible to quantitatively calculate both toxic health risk (non-carcinogenic effects) and carcinogenic risk.

Decision support models and Digital Twin

RIAT+ and VERA models Decision support models and Digital Twins meet the need to simulate the effectiveness of possible mitigation actions for the management and improvement of air quality. Through integrated emission assessment modelling, concentration calculation and the possibility of generating alternative scenarios, these tools enable decision-makers to guide environmental policies on the basis of quantitative, transparent and comparable analyses. Decision-support models play a central role in this process: they make it possible to quantitatively assess the effects of environmental policies, compare alternative scenarios, estimate costs and benefits and identify the most effective measures for reducing concentrations. Thanks to an integrated approach, these tools combine emission inventories, atmospheric models, socio-economic information and optimisation techniques, making more informed, transparent and results-oriented planning possible. At the same time, the evolution and development of Digital Twins, true “digital replicas” of the territory capable of reproducing real dynamics in a virtual environment. The integration of observed data, physical models and advanced algorithms, including neural networks and machine learning approaches, makes it possible to obtain high-resolution representations of the territory and emission behaviour, paving the way for new forms of predictive and proactive governance. Together, decision support models and Digital Twins provide a solid basis for addressing the challenges of environmental planning, supporting the definition of more effective policies thanks to the simulation of the impact of different scenarios. Both tools foster cooperation between administrations and concretely contribute to improving well-being and urban quality of life. In this context several solutions developed by TerrAria and applied in international and national regional contexts are included. These include RIAT+, an integrated assessment modelling tool that supports the identification of the most efficient emission reduction measures, and VERA, the digital twin of Emilia-Romagna that integrates data, models and advanced algorithms to dynamically and predictively analyse the impact of policies on air quality.

Micro-scale modelling

CFD models Micro-scale modelling makes it possible to analyse in detail the behaviour of fluids in complex conditions, where the presence of obstacles, irregular geometries or emission sources requires a very fine representation of air motions. At this scale, atmospheric dynamics are studied by reconstructing turbulent flows through CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) methods, which make it possible to simulate phenomena that are difficult to represent with local-scale models. CFD simulations are particularly useful when it is necessary to understand the interaction between wind, buildings, infrastructure and point sources, or to assess the behaviour of jets, plumes and dispersion under highly variable conditions. This approach allows a realistic description of turbulent flows generated by orography, artificial structures and emission processes, providing a solid basis for analysing pollutant concentrations in critical areas. TerrAria applies micro-scale modelling using open-source CFD codes such as OpenFOAM, widely used in the scientific and industrial fields for its flexibility and its ability to represent turbulent flows. OpenFOAM makes it possible to simulate combustion, chemical transport, vortex formation and velocity distributions, providing a detailed picture of the behaviour of the physical system being modelled. Thanks to these simulations it is possible to analyse pollutant concentrations near sources, assess smoke dispersion, study temperature and jet structure and understand the effects of turbulence generated by plants or infrastructure. Micro-scale CFD modelling also makes it possible to compare alternative scenarios, verify the effect of plant modifications, optimise construction configurations and support design in industrial and environmental contexts.

Energy Audits

Tool to assess the energy footprint of companies and energy efficiency strategies TerrAria carries out energy audits for obligated entities pursuant to Legislative Decree 102/2014, as well as for voluntary entities. Large enterprises and energy-intensive companies are required to perform an energy audit every 4 years, starting from the first deadline set on 5 December 2015, in compliance with Legislative Decree 102/2014, which transposes Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency. The energy audit is an important tool for companies to understand their energy footprint and to assess energy efficiency measures. It is the instrument through which the consumption profile, energy balance and energy management of a company are analysed, with the aim of identifying and quantifying energy efficiency opportunities in the production processes involved, in the general and auxiliary services supporting them, and finally in the building-plant system in which the company operates. The main steps of the audit are: acquisition and processing of consumption data: energy consumption monitored through electricity meters and the gas meter; calculation of energy performance indicators based on production data at the highest available level of detail; on-site inspection of the production facility, with verification of data and characteristics (power, efficiency, operating hours, etc.) of the main machinery; analysis of the collected information and identification of any need for further investigation; discussion with the company on the pre-feasibility of possible energy efficiency measures; preparation of the audit report, in compliance with the provisions of Legislative Decree 102/2014. For the preparation of energy audits, TerrAria uses ERGapp, a Web application developed in-house and delivered via browser as a service accessible from any device (PC, tablet, smartphone), capable of monitoring and analysing energy consumption in real time, reconstructing historical consumption series, displaying power quality parameters, analysing EnPIs (energy performance indicators) and corporate KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and simulating the savings achievable from each identified energy efficiency measure.

Regional-scale modelling

CAMx and WRF-CHEM models Regional-scale modelling is an advanced tool for understanding the behaviour of atmospheric pollutants over large territories, typically ranging from several tens to several hundreds of kilometres. Through dedicated modelling simulations it is possible to integrate physical processes, meteorological dynamics, pollutant transport and chemical transformations, reconstructing a complete picture of atmospheric conditions and pollution levels across an entire region. The inclusion of pollutant chemistry is a key element of these models: it allows simulation of reactions between gaseous and particulate compounds, the formation of secondary particulate matter, the oxidation of reactive species and their spatial and temporal distribution. The models used by TerrAria, such as CAMx and WRF-CHEM, make it possible to analyse in detail how meteorological conditions influence pollutant dispersion and how emissions from anthropogenic and natural sources contribute to regional pollution levels. Regional-scale modelling simulations also allow the evaluation of future emission scenarios, the estimation of the effects of emission reduction measures and the support of authorities in defining air quality improvement strategies. WRF-CHEM directly integrates meteorology and pollutant chemistry, offering a realistic representation of complex processes such as aerosol-radiation interaction, the impact of pollutants on the surface energy balance or variations in pollution levels in response to changing atmospheric conditions. CAMx, with its modular structure and its ability to simulate detailed emission scenarios, is particularly suited to evaluating the effects of regional policies and estimating emission contributions at different scales.