Assessment of the impact of ship emissions on air quality based on a complete annual emission inventory using AIS data for the port of Naples

Air pollution due to marine traffic is strongly rising due to the rapid development of marine traffic and has brought great challenges to maritime policy and management. The purpose of this paper is to create a complete emissions inventory for the port of Naples and to assess its impact on air quality on an urban scale. The study presents a comprehensive global shipping emission inventory of NOx, SO2, and PM based on AIS data for the 2018. A bottom-up methodology was developed to assess the amounts of atmospheric pollutants emitted by all ships in port and its impact on the atmospheric pollution. A MATLAB code was developed to associate every AIS record to the most relevant phases that cover a ship in port. To estimate the emissions, a database containing the main information regarding over 900 ships was created. A Gaussian puff model (CALPUFF) was used to study the dispersion of the pollutants in the atmosphere and the impact on the urban area. The results obtained were compared with data from fixed monitoring stations in the urban area in Naples to assess the contribution of ship emissions to air quality. The methodology can be used to estimate shipping emissions in other port and/or regions and hence may serve as an input for other researchers and policy makers working in this field.