SHERPA (Screening for High Emission Reduction Potential on Air) is a Java/Python tool, which allows for a rapid exploration of potential air quality improvements resulting from national/regional/local emission reduction measures. The tool has been developed with the aim of supporting national, regional and local authorities in the design and assessment of their air quality plans.The tool is based on the relationships between emissions and concentration levels, and can be used to answer the following type of questions:

• What is the potential for local action in my domain?
• What are the priority activity, sectors and pollutants on which to take action?
• What is the optimal dimension that my policy action domain (city, region…) should have to be efficient?

The SHERPA tool is distributed with EU-wide data on emissions and source-receptor models (spatial resolution of roughly 7x7 km2), so that it is very easy to start working on any region/local domain in Europe.

More specifically, SHERPA logical pathway is implemented through the following steps:

• Source allocation: to understand how the air quality in a given area is influenced by different sources;
• Governance: to analyze how one should coordinate with the surrounding regions to optimally improve air quality;
• Scenario analysis: to simulate the impact on air quality of a specific emission reduction scenario (defined also through the previous two steps)

SHERPA can also provide input data to be used RIAT+ (The Regional Integrated Assessment Tool), a more advanced tool for Integrated Assessment Modeling dealing with the cost-effectiveness of measures.

How to get SHERPA

Registered users can freely download SHERPA, run the setup and install the tool. A link will automatically be created on your desktop and in the Windows Start menu. You can run SHERPA by double-clicking any shortcut on your desktop or in the startup menu.