In order to assure that the estimates provided by AERIS are
reasonable, it is essential to carry out an analysis on its consistence
and robustness as to evaluate its “fitness-for-purpose”. No universal
consensus has been reached so far on good practices to evaluate
model performance (Chemel et al., 2010; Alexandrov et al., 2011).
Aiming to be as rigorous as possible, the evaluation was conducted
for two relevant aspects as shown in detail in the following sections.
First, the congruence of the modelling approach was examined
through an additivity test where the outputs of the AQMS
were used as reference for assessment purposes. Then, in order to
check the accuracy of AERIS estimates, its performance was
compared: (i) against air-quality observations for year 2011 and (ii)
against the predictions of the AQMS for a future emission scenario
in 2014. It is worth noting that the results of the AQMS have been
already contrasted against observations independently (de la Paz
et al., 2013).