3. Basic principles of emission inventories

An emission inventory is a qualitative and quantitative description of the release of certain substances into the atmosphere from anthropogenic and natural sources. It is characterized by specific features relating to its four components:

• time, i.e. the period covered by the inventory and the temporal resolution (time step) for which emissions are to be established;

• space, i.e. the geographical area covered by the inventory, and spatial resolution, i.e. the territorial entities for which emissions are determined;

• emitters, i.e. all sources covered by the inventory, and the source categories (or sectors) for which emissions are calculated and reported;

• the substances covered by the inventory and, where applicable, the different physical and...