Korean National Emissions Inventory System and 2007 Air Pollutant Emissions

Abstract

Korea has experienced dramatic development and has become highly industrialized and urbanized during the past 40 years, which has resulted in rapid economic growth. Due to the industrialization and urbanization, however, air pollutant emission sources have increased substantially. Rapid increases in emission sources have caused Korea to suffer from serious air pollution. An air pollutant emissions inventory is one set of essential data to help policymakers understand the current status of air pollution levels, to establish air pollution control policies and to analyze the impacts of implementation of policies, as well as for air quality studies. To accurately and realistically estimate administrative district level air pollutant emissions of Korea, we developed a Korean Emissions Inventory System named the Clean Air Policy Support System (CAPSS). In CAPSS, emissions sources are classified into four levels. Emission factors for each classification category are collected from various domestic and international research reports, and the CAPSS utilizes various national, regional and local level statistical data, compiled by approximately 150 Korean organizations. In this paper, we introduced for the first time, a Korean national emissions inventory system and release Korea’s official 2007 air pollutant emissions for five regulated air pollutants.