Urban Air Quality

This paper presents a brief introduction of rapid urbanization and its consequences for air pollution in Asia. The second section elaborates local capacity for urban air quality management (UAQM). The third section discusses the capacity building process with an emphasis on the role of international environmental cooperation. The fourth section highlights Kitakyushu Initiative as an example of international cooperation for local capacity building. The fifth section discusses two successful case studies for UAQM. The sixth section briefly captures the challenges for UAQM in Asian cities. The seventh section puts a few policy recommendations. The eighth section concludes this paper. 1. Urbanization and urban environmental challenges Urban environmental challenges have become the top priority agenda for environmental governance. The environmental challenges, as a result of rapid urbanization, coupled with lower capacity to manage these problems are drastically damaging the local as wel...

The photochemical box model (PBM) developed in present study is based on the principle of mass conservation. It has a horizontal domain of city size and a vertical dimension of the mixed layer height. The concentration of any pollutant is determined by horizontal advection, vertical entrainment, source emissions, and chemical reactions. A one dimensional high resolution boundary layer model by Blackadar (1976, 1979) has been further developed by considering the effect of urban heat islands to simulate the variation of the mixed layer height and incorporated in the PBM. The simulated pollutant concentration using the predicted mixed layer height compares very well with observations and shows good daytime dynamic variation. The model predicted mixed layer height is a significant improvement over the characteristic mixed layer growth curve used in the original PBM by Schere and Demerjian (1984). The gas phase chemical kinetic mechanism used in the Regional Acid Deposition Study II (RADM2) and Demerjian chemical mechanism have been used to calculate the contributions of chemical reactions to the changes of pollutant concentrations. Detailed analysis and comparisons of the two chemical mechanisms have been made. The simulated pollutant concentration using both chemical mechanisms are in very good agreement with observations. A radiative transfer model developed by Madronich (1987) has been incorporated in the PBM for the calculation of actinic flux and photolytic rate constants. Height averaged and radiation corrected photolytic rate constant are used for the photochemical reactions. The simulated pollutant concentrations for CO, NO, NO_2 and O_3 are in very good agreement with observations. Budget analyses conducted for CO, NO, NO_2 and O_3 have enhanced our understanding of the relative contributions of horizontal advection, vertical entrainment, source emissions, and chemical reactions to the overall rate of change of their concentrations. Sensitivities of model results to the variation of photolytic rate constants, boundary conditions, hydrocarbon speciation factors, and thermal rate constant have been tested.

Until recently, urban air quality modelling has been based on operational models of an integral nature. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to address the same problems is increasing rapidly. Operational models e.g. OSPM, AERMOD, ADMS-Urban have undergone many comprehensive formal evaluations as to their “fitness for purpose” while CFD models do not have such an evaluation record in the urban air quality context. This paper looks at the application of both approaches to common problems. In particular, pollutant dispersion from point and line sources in the simplest neutral atmospheric boundary layer and line sources placed within different regular building geometries is studied with the CFD code FLUENT and the atmospheric dispersion model ADMS-Urban. Both the effect of street canyons of different aspect ratios and various obstacle array configurations consisting of cubical buildings are investigated. The standard k–εk–ε turbulence model and the advection–diffusion (AD) method (in contrast to the Lagrangian particle tracking method) are used for the CFD simulations. Results from the two approaches are compared. Overall CFD simulations with the appropriate choice of coefficients produce similar concentration fields to those predicted by the integral approach. However, some quantitative differences are observed. These differences can be explained by investigating the role of the Schmidt number in the CFD simulations. A further interpretation of the differences between the two approaches is given by quantifying the exchange velocities linked to the mass fluxes between the in-canopy and above-canopy layers.

Trees are effective in the capture of particles from urban air to the extent that they can significantly improve urban air quality. As a result of their aerodynamic properties conifers, with their smaller leaves and more complex shoot structures, have been shown to capture larger amounts of particle matter than broadleaved trees. This study focuses on the effects of particle size on the deposition velocity of particles (Vg) to five urban tree species (coniferous and broadleaved) measured at two field sites, one urban and polluted and a second more rural. The larger uptake to conifers is confirmed, and for broadleaves and conifers Vg values are shown to be greater for ultra-fine particles (Dp < 1.0 microm) than for fine and coarse particles. This is important since finer particles are more likely to be deposited deep in the alveoli of the human lung causing adverse health effects. The finer particle fraction is also shown to be transported further from the emission source; in this study a busy urban road. In further sets of data the aqueous soluble and insoluble fractions of the ultra-fines were separated, indicating that aqueous insoluble particles made up only a small proportion of the ultra-fines. Much of the ultra-fine fraction is present as aerosol. Chemical analysis of the aqueous soluble fractions of coarse, fine and ultra-fine particles showed the importance of nitrates, chloride and phosphates in all three size categories at the polluted and more rural location.

Increasing volumes of municipal solid waste (MSW) pose disposal problems for many cities. Costs are rising as landfilling becomes more difficult. The production of clean transportation fuels (methanol or hydrogen) from MSW is one economically and environmentally promising option for dealing with these problems. An attractive feature is that elimination of essentially all air pollutant emissions is inherent in the

Solar-reflective or high-albedo, alternatives to traditionally absorptive urban surfaces such as rooftops and roadways can reduce cooling energy use and improve urban air quality at almost no cost. This paper presents information to support programs that mitigate urban heat islands with solar-reflective surfaces: estimates of the achievable increase in albedo for a variety of surfaces, issues related to the selection

The prediction of spatial variation of the concentration of a pollutant governed by various sources and sinks is a complex problem. Gaussian air pollutant dispersion models such as AERMOD of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) can be used for this purpose. AERMOD requires steady and horizontally homogeneous hourly surface and upper air meteorological observations. However, observations with such frequency are not easily available for most locations in India. To overcome this limitation, the planetary boundary layer and surface layer parameters required by AERMOD were computed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model (version 2.1.1) developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). We have developed a preprocessor for offline coupling of WRF with AERMOD. Using this system, the dispersion of respirable particulate matter (RSPM/PM10) over Pune, India has been simulated. Data from the emissions inventory development and field-monitoring campaign (13–17 April 2005) conducted under the Pune Air Quality Management Program of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), India and USEPA, have been used to drive and validate AERMOD. Comparison between the simulated and observed temperature and wind fields shows that WRF is capable of generating reliable meteorological inputs for AERMOD. The comparison of observed and simulated concentrations of PM10 shows that the model generally underestimates the concentrations over the city. However, data from this single case study would not be sufficient to conclude on suitability of regionally averaged meteorological parameters for driving Gaussian models like AERMOD and additional simulations with different WRF parameterizations along with an improved pollutant source data will be required for enhancing the reliability of the WRF–AERMOD modeling system.

This paper uses a two-step estimation procedure suggested by Sherwin Rosen to estimate structural demand and supply equations for urban air quality. In the first step, a hedonic price equation is estimated for residential property values for the Washington, D. C., SMSA for 1970. In the second step, a set of marginal hedonic prices is generated. These prices and the quantity of clean air (reciprocal of air pollution) are used as endogenous variables in a simultaneous equation model. Empirical results indicate a price elasticity of demand between −1.2 and −1.4 and a unitary income elasticity.

A method to determine emissions from the actual car fleet under realistic driving conditions has been developed. The method is based on air quality measurements, traffic counts and inverse application of street air quality models. Many pollutants are of importance for assessing the adverse impact of the air pollution, e.g. NO2, CO, lead, VOCs and particulate matter. Aromatic VOCs are of special great concern due to their adverse health effects. Measurements of benzene, toluene and xylenes were carried out in central Copenhagen since 1994. Significant correlation was observed between VOCs and CO concentrations, indicating that the petrol engine vehicles are the major sources of VOC air pollution in central Copenhagen. Hourly mean concentrations of benzene were observed to reach values of up to 20 ppb, what is critically high according to the WHOs recommendations. Based on inverse model calculation of dispersion of pollutants in street canyons, an average emission factor of benzene for the fleet of petrol fuelled vehicles was estimated to be 0.38 g/km in 1994 and 0.11 in 1997. This decrease was caused by the reduction of benzene content in Danish petrol since summer 1995 and increasing percentage of cars equipped with three-way catalysts. The emission factors for benzene for diesel-fuelled vehicles were low.

This paper presents an alternative approach to air quality management (AQM) at urban scale, which is cost-effective and easy to implement, thereby being recommendable in less developed countries. The alternative is named Rapid Urban Air Quality Assessment (RUA) and it was first proposed by a team of air pollution scientists at the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL). Successful tests of