Regional-Scale Emissions for 29 Particulate Elements in the Oil Sands Region

Annual emissions data for 29 particulate elements in the Athabasca oil sands region of northern Alberta, Canada, covering an area of approximately 300 by 420 km². The inventory, developed by Environment and Climate Change Canada, estimates emissions for PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 fractions using USEPA SPECIATE profiles and was validated against ambient measurements at three monitoring sites.

Use Cases

• Air quality modeling studies based on annual emissions of 29 particulate elements.
• Evaluating the environmental impact of oil sands industrial activities based on regional emission distributions.
• Validating dispersion models based on the comparison of simulated concentrations with ground measurements.
• Assessing ecosystem and community exposure to particulate matter based on PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 speciation.

Strengths

• Covers a large regional area of approximately 300 by 420 km².
• Includes emissions for 29 distinct particulate elements.
• Inventory was validated against measurements from three monitoring sites.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Collection Method

Emissions were estimated from PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 emissions using speciation profiles from the USEPA SPECIATE database.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-15 15:14:58.092366; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR), northern Alberta, Canada (114°W–110°W, 55°N–59°N).