Field Inspections According to prEN 16841-1:2015 in a Naturally Evolved Neighborhood of Industry and Living Areas. State-of-the-art-technology of a Comprehensive Data Collection, Interaction of Different Sources and Effects on the Perceiving Citizens

Abstract

An increasing complaint situation on odour nuisance in the cities Mainz and Wiesbaden in the Rhine corridor brought the ministries of the two German counties Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate to the decision that comprehensive field measurements are necessary to determine the real impact situation. The Olfasense GmbH (formerly Odournet GmbH) conducted this huge field inspection on behalf of the ministries. The measurement area of around 7.500.000 m² was covered with a grid of 157 measurement points and 100 grid cells. Over half a year a panel of 21 assessors conducted field measurements and assigned the occurring odours to 15 defined odour characters.
The article will describe the advantages of the used web technology in comparison to the former proceeding with paper registration of odours especially due to the quick access to the results during the whole investigation period. This has several benefits for the local authorities and plant operators. It will present the results of the measurements according to prEN16841-1 and the Guideline on Odour in Ambient Air (GIRL) as well for the complete odour situation as for single odour characters. In parts the results showed a clear exceedance of the German limit values (allowed frequency of odour perception) for living areas. We will provide a discussion on the influence of odours of different sources and different characters occurring in the same period of time (odour hour) and the attempt to relate this to the effects on the citizens.