In recent years, Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the local Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) have implemented multiple emission control strategies. Althoμgh national air quality has been improved year by year, seasonal air quality deterioration still occasionally occurs in specific air quality zones. To deal with air quality deterioration caused by local meteorology and other factors, Taiwan EPA and local EPB would adopt emission control strategies such as controlling industrial emissions from upwind areas and local coal-fired power plants based on air quality deterioration event forecasting. However, the derived air quality improvement after a series of responses still remained unclear and needs further quantification. Considering local coal-fired power plants as important emission sources, the understanding of their emission control benefits should be advanced from qualitative description to quantitative assessment. Developing different combination of emission control strategies based on different meteorological conditions to maximize air quality improvement is also a crucial issue for Taiwan EPA. In order to assess the impact of regional and local meteorology on air quality in Taiwan, this project collected historical meteorological conditions during air quality events and investigated their impacts on the air quality zones. For these historical events, the project conducted air quality modeling based on several emission control scenarios that can provide scientific support for Taiwan EPA to prevent potentially significant air quality degradation in the future. Second, this project conducted air quality modeling based on different versions of the Taiwan Emission Data System (TEDS) and identify the potential abatement plans for the specific emission sources. Third, combining the above-mentioned results, the project developed a framework that can forecast air quality and quantify source-specific contributions. Throμgh air quality modeling and post-analysis, the framework can provide scientific support for Taiwan EPA and local EPB to plan and timely update their emission control strategies, and thus maximize the air quality benefit of emergency response to air quality deterioration.

air quality deterioration emergency response, power plant emission abatement, air quality deterioration emergency response assessment tool