Immission Report

As part of an immission report, it is determined if the project in question can comply with the statutory immission thresholds (e.g. for nitrogen oxides or fine particulate matter). For this purpose, dispersion calculations are carried out based on the project's emissions.

Based on existing immission concentrations, the expected effects on people and the environment must be determined as early as the planning phase of projects. The basis for assessing the effects is generally provided by the Air Pollution Control Act (in German: Immissionsschutzgesetz-Luft, IG-L). The range of projects and plans is broad and includes (selection): Biomass heating plants, power plants, paper mills, underground and multi-storey car parks, road construction projects, railway lines, refurbishment of existing plants, etc.

In its simplest form, an immission report deals with the emissions of a point source, for example a single chimney. Depending on the project, however, complex emission configurations must be considered, in which line sources (e.g. roads) or area sources (e.g. construction sites) and even the visibility of exhaust plumes must be taken into account.

Depending on the location of the project, the topography (terrain) and the built-up area (especially in urban areas) are highly relevant. Therefore, depending on the area of application, different dispersion models are used. The models currently used include LASAT, GRAMM/GRAL, MISKAM and ADMS 5.

A key aspect of assessing the impact of a project is the consideration of long-term and short-term averages, such as annual averages and half-hourly averages. When calculating long-term averages, we rely on our extensive meteorological monitoring network, which can be expanded with special measurements if necessary.

The aim of our immission reports is the comprehensive evaluation of project-related plans, and their presentation in an easy-to-follow format to be used as a base for official documentation or administrative proceedings.