Giuseppe MaffeisTerrAria srl, Italy Milan
Giuseppe Maffeis
Master of Physics and post-degree specialization in health statistics
About
57
Publications
7,014
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938
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Giuseppe Maffeis currently works at TerrAria srl (Milan, Italy), a consultancy and sw company in air quality modeling and planning. My main activities in the last years are in regional and urban methods and tools for the integrated assessment as RIAT+ Regional Integrated Assessment Tool (www.riatplus.eu), UTAQ Urban Tool for Air Quality (www.utaq.eu), SHERPA Screening for High Emission Reduction Potential on Air (https://aqm.jrc.ec.europa.eu/sherpa.aspx) and SHERPA CITY.
Health - Environmental Impact Modeling Assessment and sw tool in this field is another key issue.
Publications
Publications (57)
The identification of parameters that can quantitatively describe the different characteristics of urban morphology is fundamental to studying urban ventilation and microclimate at the local level and developing parameterizations of the dynamic effect of an urban area in mesoscale models. This paper proposes a methodology to calculate four morpholo...
Background:
Based on epidemiologic and laboratory studies, exposure to air pollutants has been linked to many adverse health effects including a higher risk of dementia. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution on risk of conversion to dementia in a cohort of subjects with mild cognitive impairm...
Aim of this work is to explore the uncertainty generated by using different source-receptor (S/R) functions in the air quality (AQ) planning, in terms of selecting the most cost-effective measures to improve AQ and reduce population exposure. Both technical and non-technical measures have been evaluated through the regional integrated assessment to...
Background
Since February 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic has rapidly spread throughout Italy. Some studies showed an association of environmental factors, such as PM10, PM2.5, NO2, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation and mobility with the spread of the epidemic.
In this work, we aimed to predict via Deep Learning the real-time...
An integrated modelling approach is used in this work to assess the differences in defining air quality policies in spatial domains of different extensions. The tools used, SHERPA and RIAT+, are public domain and allow to rapidly define the emission scenario of the European area under examination and to solve a multi-objective problem to trade-off...
(1) Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with still unknown etiology. Some occupational and environmental risk factors have been suggested, including long-term air pollutant exposure. We carried out a pilot case-control study in order to evaluate ALS risk due to particulate matter with a diamete...
After the appearance of COVID-19 in China last December 2019, Italy was the first European country to be severely affected by the outbreak. The first diagnosis in Italy was on February 20, 2020, followed by the establishment of a light and a tight lockdown on February 23 and on March 8, 2020, respectively. The virus spread rapidly, particularly in...
The Urban Tool for Air Quality (UTAQ) is a project funded by CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) - ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). UTAQ is a web-based tool with a user-friendly interface that allows users to evaluate current and forecasted air quality for the following 4 days at urban scale with high resoluti...
Background
Exposure to air pollutants increases the risk of several chronic diseases, possibly including neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's dementia. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of long-term exposure to as major outdoor air pollutant, particulate matter ≤10μm (PM10), on the risk of dementia in a cohort of subjects with...
Background
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is fatal neurodegenerative disease with still unknown etiology. Some environmental and occupational risk factors have been proposed, including air pollution, as suggested by recent studies. We carried out a case-control study in order to assess ALS risk due to environmental exposure to particulate matt...
Background
Italy's severe COVID-19 outbreak was addressed by a lockdown that gradually increased in space, time and intensity. The effectiveness of the lockdown has not been precisely assessed with respect to the intensity of mobility restriction and the time until the outbreak receded.
Methods
We used processed mobile phone tracking data to measu...
Following the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) last December 2019 in China, Italy was the first European country to be severely affected, with the first local case diagnosed on 20 February 2020. The virus spread quickly, particularly in the North of Italy, with three regions (Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romag...
UTAQ (Urban Tool for Air Quality) is a European project funded by CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). UTAQ (Urban Tool for Air Quality) is a Web application that allows to analyze current and forecasted air quality on an urban scale at high resolution (10-50 m). On the one hand...
While in general air quality has improved in Europe over the past decades, there are still problems with exceedances of ambient air quality limit values in many urban areas. To design efficient Air Quality Plans to face these problems, methodologies and tools are required to assess the effects of possible abatement measures on local air quality. On...
Air quality plans must be demonstrated to be economically sustainable and environmentally effective. This paper presents a full cost–benefit and environmental analysis of a large regional air quality plan involving several different actions covering a large spectrum of fields, from domestic heating to passenger and freight transport, from electrici...
To comply with EU regulations, local environmental authorities of the regions where the mandatory air quality limits are not met must develop suitable emission reduction plans. These normally represent a compromise among what is economically feasible, what is politically acceptable, and what can provide measurable benefits. As a consequence, they i...
“Air quality plans” according to Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC Art. 23 are the strategic element to be developed, with the aim to reliably meet ambient air quality standards in a cost-effective way. This chapter provides a general framework to develop and assess such plans along the lines of the European Commission’s basic ideas to implement eff...
This chapter provides a review, derived from the extended survey conducted within the APPRAISAL project, of the integrated assessment methodologies used in different countries to design air quality plans and to estimate the effects of emission abatement policy options on human health.
To evaluate in practice how IAM can be used to formulate and improve current air quality plans, this chapter reports on the application of one of the existing IAM tools, to two test cases: one for the Brussels Capital Region in Belgium and the other to the region of Porto in the North of Portugal. The two cases are representative for the two option...
The use of modelling tools to support decision-makers to plan air quality policies is now quite widespread in Europe. In this paper, the Regional Integrated Assessment Tool (RIAT+), which was designed to support policy-maker decision on optimal emission reduction measures to improve air quality at minimum costs, is applied to the Porto Urban Area (...
Manganese (Mn) is both essential and toxic for humans, mainly depending on the total levels and its species. Main sources of exposure include food and air pollution, particularly motorized traffic. We sought to determine the potential influence of these sources on serum total levels of Mn and Mn species. We selected a random sample of municipality...
“Air quality plans” according to Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC Art. 23 are the strategic element to be developed, with the aim to reliably meet ambient air quality standards in a cost-effective way. This chapter provides a general framework to develop and assess such plans along the lines of the European Commission’s basic ideas to implement eff...
This chapter provides a review, derived from the extended survey conducted within the APPRAISAL project, of the integrated assessment methodologies used in different countries to design air quality plans and to estimate the effects of emission abatement policy options on human health. The final purpose of this review is to foster the dissemination...
Introduction:
Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal and a serious environmental hazard to humans. Some uncertainties still exist about major sources of Cd exposure in non-occupationally exposed subjects in addition to cigarette smoking, such as diet and outdoor air pollution. We sought to determine the influence of these sources on a biomarker of exposure...
This study focuses on the environmental impact assessment of three different high efficiency residential pellet boilers manufactured by an Austrian company. A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and an Environmental Life Cycle Costing (ELCC) analysis were performed, along with air quality modelling simulations for two EU case studies to evaluate CO, PM10, SO...
Air pollution Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) can be used for determining how emissions should be reduced to improve air quality and to protect human health in a cost-efficient way. The application of IAM is also useful to spread information to the general public and to explain the effectiveness of proposed Air Quality Plans. In this paper, the...
The 2008 European Air Quality Directive (AQD) (2008/50/EC) encourages the use of models in combination with monitoring in a range of applications. It also requires Member States to design appropriate air quality plans for zones where the air quality does not comply with the AQD limit values. In order to cope with these various elements, a wide rang...
This study presents an evaluation of the impact by future pollutant anthropogenic emission reductions on summertime aerosol feedbacks over the Po valley. The fully coupled on line model Wrf/Chem has been used to examine the air quality and meteorology response over the region to 2020 emission reductions with respect to a simulation base case (2013)...
In last decades, air pollution modelling assumed a key role for the
definition and evaluation of suitable emission control strategies,
supporting Regional Decision Makers in the design of long-term plans for
air quality improvement. This is a complex task, due to the non-linear
chemical reactions and physical processes that bring to secondary
pollu...
Il presente lavoro descrive un esperimento condotto per testare il contributo di termografie aeree per la valutazione su ampia scala delle dispersioni energetiche degli edifici, in particolare delle coperture. Le termografie aeree si candidano a ricoprire un ruolo importante nella definizione di strategie di pianificazione energetica attraverso la...
Benzene, a recognized occupational leukemogen in adults, has been hypothesized to also increase the risk of childhood leukemia. We carried out a population-based case–control study in a northern Italy community involving 83 cases with acute childhood leukemia diagnosed in the years 1998–2009 and 332 matched controls. We assessed residential exposur...
The Po valley is one of the most polluted area in Europe regarding ozone and PM10. To support policy-makers to implement programmes to reduce air pollution, the Veneto Region Environmental Protection Agency has set a state-of-the-art modelling system. Comparison between model results and measurements illustrates a fairly good agreement for NO<sub a...
A CALMET-CAMx system was implemented to investigate PM10 source apportionment in the urban area of Venice. The modelling system was run for two winter months on a domain covering most of the Veneto region with a 4 km resolution mesh and a 1 km nested grid over Venice and its mainland area, in order to distinguish the local emission contributions fr...
The Po-valley located in northern Italy at the footstep of the Alps is characterized by a high density of anthropogenic emissions and by the frequent occurrence of stagnant meteorological conditions. The area has been identified as one hot spot place where pollution levels will remain problematic in spite of the application of the current European...
Italy often suffers for high concentrations of secondary pollutants: ozone during summer and particulate matter in winter. Modelling reconstruction is a really challenging task, due to the presence of complex orographic systems and the interaction with the Mediterranean Sea. As case study, the year 1999 was simulated and evaluated by measuring data...
Modern diagnostic meteorological models such as CALMET parameterise slope flows, kinematic terrain effects, terrain blocking effects, and include a divergence minimisation procedure. They also contain a micrometeorological model for the calculation of the planetary boundary-layer parameters both over-land and over-water. In CALMET, in particular, t...
A model chain was implemented to study photochemical wintertime smog. Milan urban area application gave good results for secondary
pollutants O3 and NO2 showing the advantages of nesting technique on a small domain and some criticisms linked to hmix parameterization. The possible
effect of the heterogeneous creation of HONO is at the moment under i...
In the framework of the EUROTRAC-2 subproject limitation of oxidant production an emission inventory was developed for the Lombardy region in Italy with a 1 h temporal and 3 km spatial resolution. The emissions were processed in a bottom-up approach. We outline the emissions processing strategy used and summarize the inventory characteristics. Spat...
A set of methods has been compiled to compare gridded air emission inventories that have been derived, on the same spatial grid, using widely differing techniques. Top-down and bottom-up inventories for Milan, Italy and for the Greater Athens area (GAA), Greece were used to test and apply these methods. The applicability of each method to certain s...
This work describes a methodology to estimate NMVOCs from vegetation in the Lombardy region. The proposed method is a ||bottom-up|| one: starting from local data, at a municipality level, emissions have been estimated across Lombardy. By changing the different land use species assignment and the other site-specific inputs, it is possible to apply t...
Lombardy is the most industrialized and populated region in Italy. As a matter of fact it has more than 9 millions inhabitants (16% of the Italian population) over a territory of about 24000 km2 (8% of Italy). Because of its complex orography the distribution of the population is not homogeneous, for example, there are 55 compared to 1440 inhabitan...
This paper describes a method to forecast the exceedance probability of a fixed threshold for a certain air pollutant concentration. This general approach has been applied in the case of carbon monoxide on 35 traffic monitoring stations in the Lombardy Region. The implemented model has been called FOREPOLL (Forecast Pollution).
The model structure,...
The aim of the model presented in this work is to describe the acidic contents of cloud droplets' temporal evolution, both
during their formation process and the following stage of precipitation. The attention is mainly focused on precipitations
in which the contribution of local polluted air masses, typical of big urban areas, is predominant. Some...
' This work is part of the 1998 Environmental Budget worked out by the Regional Environmental Agency (ARPAV), for the industrial area of Porto Marghera, Venice (I). Using the PSR scheme (OECD, 1994), Pressure (energy and raw materials consumption, air and water emissions, garbage production, ecc.) and State indicators (air, water and soil monitorin...
Projects
Projects (5)
The aim of EPICO19 project is to support public health technicians and decision makers in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in progress. EPICO19 is a tool designed as a Web based GIS (Geographic Information System) DSS (Decision Support System), led by an epidemiological modelling and a logistic engine that analyze and predict the historical and the real-time transmission of SARS-COV-2 virus at a local level, keeping into account spatio-temporal correlations. This project is funded by European Spatial Agency ESA (ESA Contract No. 4000131356/20/NL/AF).
Reducing the uncertainties related to emission estimation compilation will lead to better development, implementation and evaluation of air quality assessment, air quality plans and source apportionment in the Ambient Air Quality Directives framework.
Provide recommendations to support modelling groups in reducing modelling uncertainties related to emission processing.
Provide operational guidelines concerning integration and harmonization of urban/regional emission inventory.
METHODS, EXPECTED RESULTS
• Quantitative results on the impact of the emission uncertainty on air quality estimates in three areas: Po Valley/Milan, Southern Poland/Krakow, Catalonia/Barcelona (regions and urban areas local domains) and two case studies: BASELINE (yearly) and the
COVID 19
• Evaluation of the sensitivity to the uncertainty in emission inventories before (diagnostic phase) and after the application of project recommendations (sensitivity phase)
• Operational recommendations to support the emission processing (for the selected topics)
MORE about LIFE REMY project and its actions
https://liferemy.eu/about-us/
