Emission reduction strategies to control tropospheric ozone: a multi-objective optimization approach

To control tropospheric ozone Environmental Authorities need to develop air quality plans, implementing emission reduction control strategies. This is a challenging task, mainly due to nonlinear processes that bring to ozone formation and accumulation, forced by precursor emissions and solar radiation. This is even more difficult when considering, at the same time, effectiveness and costs of alternative environmental policies. In this study a multi-objective mathematical problem is proposed, considering air quality and cost objectives. Air quality objective is formalized as source-receptor model identified processing simulations of a complex photochemical modelling system. Cost objective is formalized identifying cost functions linking technology cost to emission reduction. The proposed methodology has been applied to a complex domain in Northern Italy, including Milan metropolitan area, a region characterized by high ozone levels during summer season.