Publications

This literature study, financed by the Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) of Germany, examines recent concepts on the bioavailability of contaminants in soil. It is focused on theoretical concepts and methods appropriate for identifying bioavailable fractions of contaminants.  

Unlike in other sectors, CO2 emissions from transport rose between 1990 and 2000 by more than 12%. The primary reason is the increased transport volume: between 1990 and 2000, the increase in freight transport alone was around 41%. During the same period, the increase in passenger transport, measured in passenger kilometres, was around 22% [VIZ, 2001/2002].

At the beginning of 2000, the World Trade Organization (WTO) commenced negotiations on the continuation of the liberalization process in international agricultural trade.

The German Bight is characterised by mean residence times of 33 days in the inner Bight and of 67 days in the larger German Bight area. The shallow Bight (mostly < 40 m depth) receives large amounts of nutrients from the rivers Elbe, Weser and Ems, from transboundary transports along with the coastal current and from the atmosphere.

The UN/ ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) has over the years substantially contributed to the development of international environmental law and has created the essential framework for controlling and reducing the damage to human health and the environment caused by transboundary air pollution.

European legislation on exhaust emissions has made major progress with the adaption of limit value standards up to and including Euro 4 for passenger cars on light-duty commercial vehicles and Euro V for heavy-duty engines. Exhaust gas limit values need to be updated primarily for vehicle with diesel engines.

The objective of the project was to contribute to the implementation of Directive 96/61/EC on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC).

While it is generally acknowledged that air transport causes environmental damages that are not included in its price - so-called external environmental costs - it is sometimes argued that air transport covers at least its infrastructure costs. This argument is important in the discussion on distortions of competition between transport modes.

This report aims at quantifying, within ranges as small as possible, external costs from environmental impacts of aviation. Benefits of aviation are important too, but they are generally, in contrast to the negative impacts, well captured by the market.

Germany has committed itself in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – as have other Member States of the European Union – to prepare inventories of its annual greenhouse gas emissions by source categories. The EU is itself a signatory to the Convention.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC) was ratified by Germany in December 1983 and entered into force in March 1994. As a Party to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, Germany is obliged to prepare, publish and regularly update national emission inventories of greenhouse gases.

This report describes the implementation and the application of Kalman Filter rountines around the model REM3/CALGRID employed at the Free University of Berlin (FUB) in the framework of the FUB-project 'Entwicklung eines Modellsystems für das Zusammenspiel von Messung und Rechnung für die bundeseinheitliche Umsetzung der EU-Rahmenrichtlinie Luftqualität'.