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Decreased air pollution in Danish cities

The air quality monitoring report from 2014 shows that concentration of pollution has decreased over the past decade in Denmark, but H.C. Andersen’s Boulevard exceeds the NO2 level above the EU limit value.

The following report presents the results from the Danish Air Quality Monitoring Programme in 2014 that was carried out by DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (DCE) at Aarhus University.

All measurements were conducted continually at eleven monitoring stations: Nine of the stations were situated in Denmark’s four largest cities, two stations in background areas and minor station in a suburban area. All measurements were supplemented by additional model calculations.

The findings show that at one street station, H.C. Andersen’s Boulevard in central Copenhagen, the level of NO2 was found in concentrations above the EU limit value. Moreover, model calculations indicate exceedances of NO2 limit values at several streets in Copenhagen. However, the exceeding of the NO2 level did not occur in the remaining monitoring stations in Odense, Aarhus and Aalborg and the annual average of PM10 and PM2.5 was below limit values at all stations. Therefore, the concentrations for most pollutants have been decreasing during the last decades.

The aim of the monitoring stations is to follow the concentration levels of toxic pollutants in the urban atmosphere and to provide the necessary knowledge to assess the trends, to perform source apportionment, and to understand the governing processes that determine the level of air pollution in Denmark.

The air quality in Danish cities has been monitored continuously since 1982 within the Danish Air Quality Monitoring network.

For more information please contact

Senior researcher Thomas Ellermann
DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy
E-mail: tel@envs.au.dk
Telephone: +45 87158526

View the full report here