Temporal Trend of Odour Emission of Livestock Buildings for Fattening Pigs Due to Climate Change

Abstract

Odour is one of the most relevant pollutants of livestock buildings. To limit the odour annoyance, separation distances are calculated to guarantee a far-reaching protection level for residents living in the vicinity. Usually, the odour emission rate is determined as an annual mean value. Due to the impact of the indoor temperature and the ventilation rate on the odour emission of livestock buildings, the possible impact of the climate change signal on the emission was analysed to find out if this effect has to be considered when calculating the separation distance. This has to be taken into consideration to avoid a possible underestimation of the separation distances by this temperature effect which are used for the zoning and licencing of livestock buildings. The impact of the climate change signal was investigated by a simulation of the indoor climate of a confined livestock building with a mechanical ventilation for 1800 fattening pigs determined yearly for the period 1981 to 2017 and the odour emission modified by these parameters. The odour emission increased by about 0.16% per year. The relative increase of the separation distances for the four cardinal directions is about 0.06% per year, the related increase for the separation area is 0.13% per year. This means that the climate change will not show a relevant impact on the separation distance.