Graphic Yearbook 2014
VII. AREAS WITH EXCEEDANCES OF LIMIT VALUES
VII.1 AREAS WITH EXCEEDED LIMIT VALUES WITH REGARD TO HUMAN
HEALTH PROTECTION
The Air Protection Act sets the limit values for selected pollutants without further distinguishing between limit values and target values. For the year 2014, areas with exceeded limit values are defined together for all pollutants monitored with regard to human health protection.
The map of areas where at least one limit value is exceeded1 (ozone excluded) presents complete information on ambient air quality in the territory of the Czech Republic. In the year 2014 such areas covered 13.5 % of the country’s territory, inhabited by approximately 54.2 % of the population (Fig. VII.1).
The inclusion of zones and agglomerations into these areas is mostly caused by the exceedance of the daily limit value for suspended PM10 particles and by the exceedance of the annual limit value for PM2.5 and benzo[a]pyrene (Table VII.1). In some areas, mainly in those with traffic and industrial loads, the inclusion of respective territories into these areas in 2014 was influenced to a certain extent also by the exceedance of the limit value for NO2 and cadmium (Chapter IV. and Figs. IV.3.1, IV.6.1). The limit value for benzene, the pollutant which contributed to the inclusion of some territories into these areas in the agglomeration of O/K/F-M before 2013, was not exceeded.
Comparison with the year 2013 shows that the share of areas with the exceedance of at least one limit value1 decreased, which is given mainly by the reduction of the area of territories with exceedances of limit values for benzo[a]pyrene.
After including ground-level ozone, 19.1 % of the territory of the Czech Republic, inhabited by 54.9 % of the population, belonged to areas with the exceedance of at least one limit value in 2014 (Fig. VII.2). The rise of the share of inhabitants after including ground-level ozone in the delimitation of these areas is not high. This is thanks to the fact that increased or even limit-exceeding concentrations of ozone occur mainly in relatively clean natural areas, i.e. in areas with lower population density (Fig. IV.4.1). In 2014, compared to 2013, the share of the territory/population exposed to above-the-limit O3 concentrations dropped (for more details, see in Chapter IV.4).
To retain continuity with evaluations made in previous years (Fig. VII.3, Table VII.1), also separately delineated were territories with exceeded limit values set by point 1 of Annex No. 1 to the Air Protection Act (formerly areas with deteriorated air quality, so-called OZKO) and territories with exceeded limit values set by point 3 of Annex No. 1 to the Air Protection Act (formerly areas with exceedances of target values, ozone excluded). The development of the delineation of these areas is given mainly by limit-exceeding air pollution caused by PM10 particles; to a certain extent it corresponds with the trend of their concentrations (Chapter IV.1.2). In other words, the largest area of OZKO territories was delineated in the years 2006, 2010 and 2011. Developments concerning territories formerly referred to as areas with target value exceedances (ozone excluded) are given mainly by above-the-limit air pollution caused by benzo[a]pyrene. For further evaluation, however, it is necessary to consider also the uncertainty of estimates of fields of annual average benzo[a]pyrene concentrations (Chapter IV.2, Annex I).
Areas with exceeded limit values have been delineated since 2006. Considerable part of the territory of the Czech Republic is still exposed to the above-the-limit concentrations of ambient air pollutants. The maps in Figs. VII.1 and VII.2 clearly show that these areas are very densely populated.
VII.2 AREAS WITH EXCEEDED LIMIT VALUES WITH REGARD TO THE
PROTECTION OF ECOSYSTEMS AND VEGETATION
As regards the protection of the most valuable natural localities in the Czech Republic, also evaluated are exceedances of limit values2 for the protection of ecosystems and vegetation in NPs and PLAs (Table VII.2). In 2014 exceedances were recorded in 1.6 % of the territory of NPs and PLAs (Fig. VII.5). Based on their spatial distribution, above-the-limit concentrations of NOx occur mainly near road infrastructure. With regard to the most valuable natural areas in the Czech Republic, the limit value for NOx was exceeded only in a very small territory of several PLAs (Table VII.2).
Although in 2014 values of the AOT40 exposure index increased at 91 % of localities (Chapter IV.4.1), the limit value for ground-level ozone was exceeded only in a relatively small area of the Czech Republic (Fig. IV.4.4) within the PLA Bílé Karpaty, the Krkonoše NP and the Šumava NP (Fig. VII.5).
Fig. VII.1 Areas with exceeding of the health protection
limit values, ground-level ozone excluded, 2014
Fig. VII.2 Areas with exceeding of the health protection limit
values, incl. ground-level ozone, 2014
Fig. VII.3 Limit value exceedances in the Czech Republic, % of
the area, 2006–2014
Fig. VII.4 Areas with exceeding of the ecosystems/vegetation
protection limit values in national parks and protected
landscape areas, ground-level ozone excluded, 2014
Fig. VII.5 Areas with exceeding of the ecosystems/vegetation
protection limit values in national parks and protected
landscape areas, including ground-level ozone, 2014
1Annual limit values for PM10, PM2.5, benzo[a]pyrene, NO2, lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel and benzene, limit value for CO (max. daily 8-hour running average), daily limit value for PM10 and SO2, 1-hour limit value for SO2 and NO2.
2Limit value for the annual and winter average concentration of SO2, limit value for the annual average concentration of NOx and limit value for O3 expressed as the AOT40 exposure index.
