Immission control; air quality in Erlangen - Clean Air Plan

The task of air pollution control is to limit pollutants in the air so that harmful effects on humans, animals, plants, material goods and soil are prevented. Emission limit values for installations (e.g. industrial plants, vehicles, heating systems, etc.) limit the pollutants that are discharged into the air. Immission limit values limit the pollutants in the air that we breathe in.

Air pollution control strategies are

• Technical measures to limit the emission of pollutants (e.g. the use of filter systems),
• avoidance measures through the use of low-emission production processes that prevent pollutants from being produced in the first place and
• a ban on the use of particularly harmful substances (e.g. asbestos, chlorofluorocarbons).
• Another measure is the manufacture of products that are as low in pollutants as possible when used (e.g. solvent-free paints, low-sulphur heating oil, low-emission engines).
• Area-related immission control includes measures to improve air quality in areas with high pollution levels, such as environmental zones and ensuring high air quality by prohibiting the establishment of businesses with high pollutant emissions.

The Bavarian State Office for the Environment operates the Bavarian Air Hygiene Monitoring System (LÜB) with over 50 measuring stations. There is also a measuring station in Erlangen on Kraepelinstraße; it is used to determine the background pollution in the suburban area. The air pollutants ozone and nitrogen oxide are measured here.

Clean air plan - brief information

The basis for assessing air quality is the 39th Federal Immission Control Ordinance (39th BImSchV). This specifies immission limit values, alarm thresholds and target values for various air pollutants.

According to § 47 BImSchG, the responsible authorities must draw up clean air plans if the immission limit values are exceeded or if there is a risk of them being exceeded, with the aim of ensuring compliance with these values.

In 2004, a clean air plan came into force for the Nuremberg - Fürth - Erlangen conurbation in accordance with Section 47 of the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG). In the years that followed, the clean air plan for the urban area of the city of Nuremberg was updated twice. The limit values of the 39th BImSchV are currently complied with in the Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen conurbation.

Monitoring of air pollutants - current measured values in Erlangen

Ozone report - LfU Bavaria

Clean air plans in Middle Franconia

Air quality - Further information