With over 120 attendants, this time the 6^th Conference about Odours in the Environment organized by the German Association of Engineers (VDI) on a biannual basis took place the 18^th and 19^th of November 2015 in the city of Karlsruhe. The number of attendees was greater than in previous occassions, therefore there was a great opportunity for networking and interacting with the people in this event.

  The number of presentations was lower than in other meetings but the quality of them was quite high.

   The first talk was given by Ms. Karen Keller, who is Judge in the Higher Administrative Court for the Land of Westphalia. Ms Keller gave an overview of the Odour Directive on Ambient air in the case-law, considering the special case of livestock production and biogas plants. Later, Mr Uwe Strotötter´s talk dealt with the current developments on the Odour Directive on Ambient Air in Germany, considering the jurisprudence and underlying some doubts that may appear when applying this norm.

   Mr. Dietmar Ötll compared modeled and "recognized by inspections" odour frequencies around livestock farms based on two practical cases. The odour frequencies were calculated with the Austrian Lagrangian Particle Model GRAL (Graz Lagrangian Model) and then compared with raster inspections. In addition, the assessment criteria for odours were also commented and the differences between inspections and model calculation were discussed.

   Mr Ulf Janicke presented some news about the revised boundary layer model German guideline VDI 3783 part 8 Environmental meteorology - Turbulence parameters for dispersion models supported by measurement data and its use in Dispersion calculations. This norm VDI 3783 is still a draft (green copy), but it is being discussed right now. Some details about the German Air pollution regulation Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control were discussed.

   Mr.Michael Kortner, Senior Consultant at Müller­BBM GmbH, presented some approaches to identify and assess the intensity of the perception of odours in ambient air. In his speech, some case studies on the importance of considering the odor intensity for evaluating plant-­related odors were detailed. In addittion, some modeling approaches to characterize the intensity of odor impacts in dispersion calculations were discussed.

   Ms. Christine Sörgel is consultant in Lohmeyer GmbH & Co. KG. In her presentation she discussed the influence of cold air events in the evaluation of odours in ambient air and the impact of this important parameter on the odor frequencies determined by the known lagrangian dispersion model AUSTAL2000.

   Mr. Friedrich Arends, from the regional ministry of Agriculture of Lower Saxony presented which would be the most appropriate considerations to take into account for odour dispersion calculations in AUSTAL2000.

   Mr Ralf Both made a short introduction of all the posters presented in this conference and then the next session titled comparison of field inspections (grid method) with the prognosis of odour concentration in ambient air.

   To be continued...

If you find this article interesting, you might be also interested in these articles.

• Odours in the Environment, a different kind of conference organised by the Association of German Engineers VDI.
• VDI Conference. Odours in the environment 29-30 Nov 2011. We see each other again in Baden-Baden, Germany
• VDI Congress Programm Odours in the Environment 2011
• Odours in the environment 25-26 Nov. 2009 in Germany
• Seminar About Odours In The Indoor And Outdoor Environment in 2007.
• VDI Conference. Odours in the environment 18-19 Nov 2015 in Karlsruhe, Germany