IG³IS Urban Greenhouse Gas Emission Observation and Monitoring Best Research Practices

 DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

  WMO GAW IG³IS Report 2021

The draft 'IG3IS Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions Observation and Monitoring Best Research Practices' document is now available online for public review and input. Comments and reviews should be submitted to gaw@wmo.int on or before January 31^st, 2022.  Include “IG³IS Urban Guidelines Submission” in the subject line. A final version will be published in May 2022. For more details, follow this link.

Excerpt from the Draft:

IG³IS aims to coordinate an integrated global greenhouse gas information system, linking inventory and process model-based information with atmospheric observations and atmospheric modelling, to provide the best possible estimates of greenhouse gas emissions at the national and urban scales.  Linkages to stakeholders and policy outcomes are a critical goal of IG³IS.  The IG³IS Implementation Plan outlines the IG³IS ambition at a broad scale (DeCola et al., 2018). 

These Best Practice Guidelines are intended to provide technical guidance on current state of the art technologies in urban greenhouse gas information systems.  It lays out the available methodologies and how they can best be implemented, as well as guidance on the end user outputs that might be obtained from each methodology.  There are many unresolved challenges in this evolving field of research, and we include discussion of ongoing research and considerations.

A note on the relationship between these Best Practice guidelines and “Standards”.  The metrology community is working in parallel to develop standards for urban greenhouse gas measurements.  These Best Practice guidelines are aimed at the research community developing emerging methods.  Standards will be the logical follow-on as best practices coalesce into widely accepted methodologies that can be implemented in operational situations.  IG³IS, BIPM, NIST and other metrology organisations will work together to ensure alignment between best practices and standards.

This is an evolving field of research, such that best practices will require regular updating as knowledge develops.  To this end, we recommend bi-annual updates to this document, with contributions solicited from researchers from around the world.