The AIR Research Approach

With a large international and interdisciplinary team of collaborators at IIASA and in its member countries, AIR examines the linkages between pollution controls, health and other development policy priorities, distills potential win-win solutions, and develops tools to inform decision making. 

AIR provides an unique example of science to policy interactions that shapes advanced air quality management strategies around the world. 

Research objective

AIR research aims to reveal smart solutions for clean air that deliver tangible benefits to diverse groups in society. AIR pioneers strategic research into a wide range of links between local air pollution and other policy objectives.

Research areas

AIR pioneers strategic research into a wide range of links between local air pollution and other policy objectives that potentially could deliver important motivation for effective policy actions. Aspects include, inter alia, the sources contributing to pollution hotspots, global emission trends of air pollutant and non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, and the nitrogen cycle. More

Projects

Each of these research directions are addressed through a variety of research projects that deliver individual elements of the mosaic of air quality and development strategies. More

Models and databases

Subsequently, the AIR team embeds the relevant findings from the various research projects into a comprehensive systems model to facilitate strategic analyses of policy intervention options that deliver multiple benefits to different groups in the society, at different spatial and temporal scale. The GAINS model, by now distinguishing 190 source regions that cover the whole world, puts all these data in a globally coherent context, and allows systematic analyses into cost-effective solutions and their distributional impacts on benefits and costs.

As a basic principle, AIR provides open access to all models and data bases on this web site. More

Policy applications

AIR applies to knowledge base of its GAINS model to inform decision processes on air quality and greenhouse gas management around the world. More

Publications

To establish scientific credibility for its tools and model analyses, AIR is extensively publishing results in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, provides full model documentation on this web site, produces tailored policy reports, and more general briefing on relevant findings. More


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Last edited: 22 June 2018

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313