GAW Report No. 205 - IGAC Project

CHAPTER 6 - EUROPECoordinating Authors: Michael Gauss (1) , Mark Lawrence (2)Contributing Authors: Erika von Schneidemesser (3) , Paul S. Monks (3) , Matthias Beekmann (4) , Alexander Baklanov (5) ,Alexander Ginzburg (6) , Michael Memmesheimer (7) , Jochen Theloke (8) , Balendra Thiruchittampalam (8) , Rainer Friedrich (8) ,Melinda Uzbasich (8) , Hermann Jakobs (9) , Sabine Wurzler (10) , Sandro Finardi (11) , Paola Radice (12) , Maria Kanakidou (13) ,Konstantinos Markakis (14) , Ulas Im (13) , Nikos Mihalopoulos (13) , Dimitris Melas (14) , Mihalis Vrekoussis (15,16)(1)Norwegian Meteorological Institute (met.no), Oslo, Norway(2)Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany(3)Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK(4)Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire de Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA), CNRS UMR 7583, Universités Paris-EstCréteil and Paris Diderot, Créteil, France(5)Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), Copenhagen, Denmark(6)Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia(7)Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany(8)Institute of Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy (IER), University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany(9)Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany(10)North-Rhine Westphalia State Agency for Nature, Environment, and Consumer Protection (LANUV-NRW),Essen, Germany(11)ARIANET Consulting, Milan, Italy(12)Paola Radice: ARIANET Consulting, Milan, Italy(13)Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory (ECPL), Department of Chemistry, University of Crete,Heraklion, Greece(14)Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki,Greece(15)Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology, Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece(16)Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany6.1 EUROPEAN MEGACITIES: GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS6.1.1 Population and GeographyThis chapter gives an overview of the megacities and major population centres (MPCs) ofEurope, namely London, Paris, Moscow, the Benelux/Rhine-Ruhr region, the Po Valley, and theEastern Mediterranean including Istanbul.A summary of the populations and location of the European MPCs is given in Table 1. Incontrast to MPCs in several other parts of the world, e.g., Asia and Africa, the populations of theEuropean MPCs, with the exception of Istanbul, have been relatively stable over the past severaldecades, and are predicted to remain so for at least the next couple decades.Table 1 - Populations and Characteristics of European Megacities and Major Population CentresMegacity / MPC Population 1 (Million) Latitude LongitudeParis, France 10.4 49.4 1.9London, England 8.6 51.3 0.0Po Valley, Italy ca.20 ~45-46 ~11-12Ruhrgebiet, Germany and Benelux Region 28 (BeNeLux) + 5.7 3 ~49-54 ~2-8(Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg)(Ruhrgebiet)Moscow, Russia 10.5 55.0 37.5Istanbul, Turkey 10.4 40.1 28.11 Population Source (unless otherwise noted): Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the UnitedNations Secretariat World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision, Web: http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/index.htm193