The objectives of this paper are the application of sensitivity analysis (SA) methods in atmospheric dispersion modeling to the emission dispersion model (EDM) to study the prediction of atmospheric dispersion of NO₂ generated by an industrial fire, whose results are useful for fire safety applications. The EDM is used to predict the level concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) emitted by an industrial fire in a plant located in an industrial region site in Algeria.

The SA was defined for the following input parameters: wind speed, NO₂ emission rate and viscosity and diffusivity coefficients by simulating the air quality impacts of fire on an industrial area. Two SA methods are used: a local SA by using a one at a time technique and a global SA, for which correlation analysis was conducted on the EDM using the standardized regression coefficient.

The study demonstrates that, under ordinary weather conditions and for the fields near to the fire, the NO₂ initial concentration has the most influence on the predicted NO₂ levels than any other model input. Whereas, for the far field, the initial concentration and the wind speed have the most impact on the NO₂ concentration estimation.

The study shows that an effective decision-making process should not be only based on the mean values, but it should, in particular, consider the upper bound plume concentration.