Calculation and Mapping of Critical Thresholds in Europe : Status Report 1999 Coordination Center for Effects

Bilthoven

1999

165 S.

Bandaufführung

90-6960-083-8

72534

This report consists of three parts. Part I describes the present (1998) state of the critical loads data base used in UN/ECE negotiations. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the European critical loads and levels in the form of maps, and summarizes the methodology to calculate exeedances and their reductions by means of gap closures. The chapter is a stand-alone-summary of the current state-of-the-art, and is designed to be understood also by the non-technical reader. Chapter 2 reports and analyzes in detail the critical loads and auxiliary data submitted by the National Focal Centers, and allows comparisons between countries. Chapter 3 explains the technical details of the so-called "accumulated exeedance" concept, which has been adopted in the integrated assessment of deposition reductions. Part II consists of two contributions: the first reports on UK help-in-kind to the Mapping Programme, and the second describes independent research on the uncertainties of exeedance calculations due to variations in deposition. Part II, the bulk of this report, consists of reports by the 24 National Focal Centers. They document the input data used to calculate national critical loads. Some of them also describe ongoing research carried out in the context of critical loads and levels. Finally, three appendices describe map projections, computer codes for exceedance calculations and conversion formulae for depositions and concentration units.