Residential-Source Emission Inventory for the Niger Delta - A Methodological Approach
This paper describes the methods applied to construct a GIS-based emission inventory infrastructure for specific air pollutants and greenhouse gases released from domestic cooking and lighting in the Niger Delta using publicly accessible data. The purpose is to identify and enhance knowledge of existing data gaps in order to progress the development of appropriate mechanisms to collect data in formats required for more accurate emission estimation. The major data gaps identified, which are demographic, activity-based, emission factors and spatial distribution of sources, are consistent across the majority of developing countries. Consequently, the methodological approach focuses on the use of a series of assumptions, emission factors from regions similar to the Niger Delta, and population estimation techniques to generate input data to support the limited publicly available government and research-based data. Developing countries with similar data limitations will benefit from the transferrable methodology. The infrastructure, which is constructed at 10 km-grid resolutions, produced total emission estimates of 70 kt/yr CO, 50 kt/yr NOx, 3 kt/yr PM10, 2.4 kt/yr SO2, 60 t/yr VOC, 5.7 mt/yr CO2 and 2 kt/yr CH4. Domestic lighting using generators and domestic cooking using firewood and kerosene constitute sources of significant emissions of air pollutants in the region. Due to the limited accuracy and completeness of currently available data, the estimates generated have high uncertainties.