11/05/2026
Seminar - "Air quality modelling: from continental to urban scale"
Mihaela Mircea (1) , Giuseppe Calori (2) , Sandro Finardi (2)
(1) Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development-ENEA
(2) ARIANET Srl
Thursday 14 May 2026 - 14:30 (UTC+2)
Lecture Room 1P - DICAM - University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, Trento
and online (Zoom webinar):
https://unitn.zoom.us/j/83648685853 (Meeting ID: 836 4868 5853, Passcode: e-mail [email protected])
Abstract
Air quality is still a critical environmental and public health challenge across Europe, with persistent exceedances of regulatory limits for particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and ozone (O₃) in several regions (Air quality status in Europe 2026). In Italy, particularly in the Po Valley, complex anthropogenic and natural emission patterns, dense urbanization, and unfavorable meteorological conditions often lead to the highest pollution levels in the continent. The new EU Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe Directive (EU) 2024/2881 introduces more stringent limit values aligned with the latest WHO guidelines (2021) and emphasizes the central role of air quality modelling. In this context, we will present several air quality modelling frameworks used to support air quality assessment, forecasting, and policy development at national and regional level, contributing to the implementation of European directives and to the design of effective mitigation strategies aimed at improving air quality and protecting human health.
Bios
Mihaela Mircea is a researcher at ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development), based at the Bologna Research Centre in Italy. She works in the field of atmospheric science, with a particular focus on air quality and climate change modelling. Her research is focused on understanding the chemical and physical processes that determine the composition of the atmosphere. She develops and applies advanced numerical models to study air pollution, including the formation and evolution of aerosols, and their interactions with gases, clouds, and precipitation. She is also involved in modelling natural and anthropogenic emissions, such as desert dust, biogenic volatile organic compounds from vegetation, and emissions from forest fires. Her work contributes to improving predictions of pollutants like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter, as well as assessing their impacts on ecosystems and human health. In addition to her scientific research, she supports environmental policy at both national and European levels through air quality studies and model intercomparison projects. She is the Italian representative appointed by the Italian Ministry of the Environment (MASE) in the Forum for air quality modelling in Europe (FAIRMODE), the Task Force on Measurements and Modelling (TFMM) in the EMEP Program and EUModNet, the European group for air quality modelling in support of the implementation of the Air Quality Directive 2881/2024. She is co- coordinating the Italian group for the application of models in air quality assessment, group created by MASE that includes all Italian regions. She has authored numerous scientific publications on atmospheric modelling and air pollution, contributing to a better understanding of environmental processes and sustainable policy development.
Giuseppe Calori, deputy director of Suez Arianet, is a senior expert in regional/urban modelling and air quality planning, holding a master’s degree in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in Automatica (both from Politecnico di Milano). Giuseppe started his research career at IIASA (International Institute for Applied System Analysis, Laxenburg, Vienna), then as a post-doc at Politecnico di Milano, mostly focusing on transboundary air pollution, and later as a visiting scholar at CGRER (Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, Univ. of Iowa), broadening his experience in chemical-transport modelling at regional and urban scales. Together with fellow colleagues, he founded ARIANET in year 2000, where he develops numerical simulation codes, leads impact studies and scenarios analyses for policy support for both public and private bodies, and contributes to commercial actions. His core experience is the development and application of air quality models and integrated modelling systems for policy support on regional and urban scales. Through the years, he has studied the influence of major emission sources on precipitation acidity in Italy through chemical Lagrangian back-trajectory and Eulerian models, then he contributed to the development of a national atmospheric simulation system to support the integrated assessment of emission abatement strategies related to acidification, eutrophication, tropospheric ozone and PM over Italy: the MINNI project, financed by the Italian Ministry for the Environment. Over South Asia, he developed a multi-year source-receptor matrix for sulfur, performing a study of the combined effects of the emissions trends and the inter-annual meteorological variability on sulfur deposition, he estimated of the effects of future scenarios on sulfur and black carbon, and set up and applied a screening model for sulfur diffusion over Asian megacities, to quantify the relevance of local vs. regional sources (RAINS-Asia Project, World Bank). Over several urban areas and regions and different public authorities, he has performed yearly air quality evaluation through 3D chemical-transport models, analyzed source contributions, developed future emissions scenarios and assessed their effects on air quality for policy support, with special attention to the EU legislation. Concerning real-time application and forecast systems, he developed a Lagrangian model for real-time dispersion of radionuclides on a continental scale during emergency situations and contributed to the development of multiple air quality forecast systems, in Italy and abroad. Whenever possible, he continues his scientific career by publishing and reviewing articles, participating in conferences, and contributing to EU working groups, including the European Forum for Air quality Modelling (FAIRMODE).
Sandro Finardi is project manager and coordinator of R&D activities at ARIANET Srl in Milan (Italy). He holds a Degree in Physics and is a regional-scale atmospheric modeler with main experience focused on planetary boundary layer meteorology, air pollutants dispersion modelling, urban air quality and microclimate. He worked at ENEL research centers (CISE SpA, ENEL/Ricerca SpA and CESI SpA) and co-founded ARIANET in 2000. He has experience in meteorological modeling at local and meso-scale, in urban environment and over complex terrain. Further activities regarded surface-atmosphere interaction and atmospheric surface and boundary layer parameterizations. He worked on coupling meteorological and chemical transport models for air quality applications, and on the development of deterministic air quality prediction systems for urban areas and industrial sites. He studied long-range transport of desert dust and wildfire smoke to evaluate their air quality contribution. He investigated the population exposure to air pollutants to support health impact assessment at urban and regional scales. He studied the climate forcing impact on air pollution and the urban air quality and microclimate impact of nature-based solutions. He participated as national expert in COST Actions 710, 715, 728 and ES0602. He has been part of the WMO/GAW working group on the air quality impact of Covid-19 measures. He has been ARIANET principal investigator of the EC-funded projects FP5/FUMAPEX, FP7 MEGAPOLI, Horizon2020/CREATE (https://create-project.eu/), LIFE+/EXPAH and LIFE-PRE/VEG-GAP (https://lifeveggap.eu/). He is presently work-package leader of the Horizon Europe project FOCI “non-CO2 FOrcers and their Climate, weather, air quality and health Impacts” ( https://www.project-foci.eu/). He worked as consultant to support ENEA and Italian regional air quality agencies to implement and apply atmospheric modelling to support air quality forecast, assessment and management.
Disclaimer
This series of seminars is primarily targeted to Students attending the double-degree MSc Programme in Environmental Meteorology and Climate Physics, jointly offered by the Universities of Trento and Innsbruck (https://corsi.unitn.it/en/environmental-meteorology-and-climate-physics). However, all those who are interested are more than welcome to join!
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