Assessment of the odour concentration in the near-field of small sources

In environmental assessment studies, small odour sources confront the expert, but also the authorities, with the problem of the applicability of a chosen methodology. Small sources can be livestock, snack-rooms, small gastronomy-businesses and similar facilities. From the complexity of the judgment, micro -scale models have to be applied. This can cause considerable expenses which might prevent a farmer or a company to order a sophisticated expertise; instead, the problem might be tackled using simplified concepts and formulae the usefulness of which is strongly limited to special cases.

For the agricultural livestock, empirical guidelines were developed in many countries (e.g. Austria, Germany, Netherlands), which, on the basis of an estimate of the odour source, calculate a separation distance, guaranteeing an extensive protection against odour annoyance. Such guidelines do not exist for other sources, which might cause conflict in administrative procedures.

In the presentation, a stepwise approach is proposed to assess the odour concentration in the near-field. If based on this procedure threshold exceedance cannot be excluded, more suitable micro-scale models have to be taken for the calculation of concentrations. Simple empirical estimates of the odour concentration will be compared with calculations by a micro-scale model.