Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek NV 

(Flemish Institute for Technological Research, VITO)

VITO is an independent Flemish research organisation, and operates in the field of clean technologies and sustainable development. The aim of the institute is to accelerate the transition into a sustainable world.

The Environmental modelling division of VITO produces products and services that combine the land, water and air data gained by experts, and ensures for governments and private organisations the opportunity to select and prioritize measures that serve the protection of our planet. One of its product is the ATMOSYS, what is a series of software and web applications on air quality management. The product was specifically designed to support the implementation of air quality legislation and policies at regional and urban level. 

The ATMOSYS consists of cost-effective, user-friendly tools that forecast air quality episodes, map the air quality with high spatial resolution and support decisions on where, when and how to take measures to improve air quality.

For more details visit: vito.be

Actions taken as part of the HungAIRy LIFE integrated project

Under the HungAIRy project, VITO will primarily provide capacity building. The urban scale, air quality mapping and planning support tools of ATMOSYS will be adapted to the Hungarian situation to allow the exploration the air pollution hotspots of the country for the national and local authorities. Given the base view of the national air quality condition, VITO will develop the ATMO urban planning device to allow Hungarian partners to implement and test their own air quality plans at later stages of the project in order to reduce emission from traffic and residential heating. 

These two local emissions will be the essential inputs of the ATMOSYS, as they are the major sources of air pollution and the major reason for the problematic background air quality. The input data will provided by the National Meteorological Service(OMSZ), and generated by CHIMERE modelling system. VITO will assist the OMSZ in collecting emission data for the cities involved in the project, to model the settlements in proportion to their size with detailed granularity and to establish an emission database of residential heating and traffic that can be used with ATMOSYS jointly to implement air quality plans.