Air Quality in Norwich, UK Multi-Scale Modelling to Assess the Significance of City, County and Regional Pollution Sources

Norwich is the eastern most city in the United Kingdom. Despite a population of only 100,000 and very little local industry, studies have shown that the city experiences levels of nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulates and sulphur dioxide exceeding the UK Air Quality Standards. Because of Norwich's situation within a large, predominantly rural area a large non-resident workforce is one factor that contributes to large, often very congested traffic flows. The city's location close to the European mainland also exposes it to polluted airmasses transported from the continent, especially in the case of particulates and ozone. In order to assess the relative contributions of local and regional sources, data from rural and urban monitoring sites are to be used in conjunction with ADMS-Urban and the UK Meteorological Office's NAME model.     

Analysis of the Daily Variations of Wintertime Air Pollution Concentrations in the City of Graz, Austria

Measured air pollution concentrations in a city reflect the influence of different kinds of sources as well as varying meteorological conditions. In the city of Graz in southern Austria, frequent stagnant meteorological conditions can cause elevated levels of air pollution although emission levels are not exceptionally high. With the aid of a detailed emission inventory and an array of sodars and tethersondes as well as lidar systems supplementing the routine meteorological and air chemistry network during a field experiment in January 1998, the daily variations of air pollution concentrations of selected components within the complex topography of the city of Graz are explained. Main results show the almost linear dependence of the morning maximum concentrations on the predicted emission rates. Throughout the day the rising of the well mixed layer reduces concentrations considerably. Concerning NO_X the fast reaction from NO to NO₂ is important due to the down-mixing of O₃ from the residual layer. The maximum in the afternoon is influenced by emission rates and pollution transport due to the mountain wind.     

Urban Air Pollution Patterns, Land Use, and Thermal Landscape: An Examination of the Linkage Using GIS

This article investigates the relationship of local air pollution pattern with urban land use and with urban thermal landscape using a GIS approach. Ambient air quality measurements for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, total suspended particles, and dust level were obtained for Guangzhou City in South China between 1981 and 2000. Landsat TM images and aerial photo derived maps were used to examine city's land use and land cover at different times and changes. Landsat thermal infrared data were employed to compute land surface temperatures and to assess urban thermal patterns. Relationships among the spatial patterns of air pollution, land use, and thermal landscape were sought through GIS and correlation analyses. Results show that the spatial patterns of air pollutants probed were positively correlated with urban built-up density, and with satellite derived land surface temperature values, particularly with measurements taken during the summer. It is suggested that further studies investigate the mechanisms of this linkage, and that remote sensing of air pollution delves into how the energy interacts with the atmosphere and the environment and how sensors see pollutants. Thermal infrared imagery could play a unique role in monitoring and modeling atmospheric pollution.     

The Impact of Road Traffic in Madrid Community by Using a Nested Gaussian-Mesoscale Air Quality Model (GAMA)

In this contribution we show the integration of a mesoscale air quality model OPANA with the ISCST3 Gaussian model (EPA) in order to analyze the impact of different emission sources and particularly the traffic emission into the different gridboxes which define the OPANA Eulerian structure. The application is done over the Madrid (Spain) regional area with 80 × 100 km and gridboxes of about 5 km. Thousands of Gaussian runs over interested gridboxes are executed in order to simulate the traffic emissions from each gridbox. Each mobile unit is represented by a Gaussian point emitter. Input meteorological variables for the ISCST3 are taken from the OPANA mesoscale air quality model. Results shows that it is possible to model the impact of traffic emissions over each gridbox. A short comparison with air quality monitoring in each gridbox is also shown.     

Assessment of Air Quality After the Implementation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as Fuel in Public Transport in Delhi, India

Public transport in Delhi was amended by the Supreme Court of India to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) instead of diesel or petrol. After the implementation of CNG since April 2001, Delhi has the highest fraction of CNG-run public vehicles in the world and most of them were introduced within 20 months. In the present study, the concentrations of various criteria air pollutants (SPM, PM₁₀, CO, SO₂ and NO_x) and organic pollutants such as benzene, toluene, xylene (BTX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were assessed before and after the implementation of CNG. A decreasing trend was found for PAHs, SO₂ and CO concentrations, while the NO_x level was increased in comparison to those before the implementation of CNG. Further, SPM, PM₁₀, and BTX concentrations showed no significant change after the implementation of CNG. However, the BTX concentration demonstrated a clear relation with the benzene content of gasoline. In addition to the impact of the introduction of CNG the daily variation in PAHs levels was also studied and the PAHs concentrations were observed to be relatively high between 10 pm to 6 am, which gives a proof of a relation with the limited day entry and movement of heavy vehicles in Delhi.     

Pollution and potential mobility of Cd, Ni and Pb in the sediments of a wastewater-receiving river in Hanoi, Vietnam

Large quantities of untreated industrial and domestic wastewater are discharged from the city of Hanoi into urban rivers. Sediment samples from three sites in the To Lich River in Hanoi were assessed with respect to the concentrations and potential mobility of cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb). Due to very high Cd concentrations up to 700 mg kg^?1 at one site, the sediment was considered highly unsuitable for any types of land use if dredged and disposed of on land. Chemical sequential extractions of wet and anoxic sediment samples showed that Cd and Pb were largely associated with the redox-sensitive fractions and could thus be mobilised following measures such as resuspension or dredging. To assess the potential mobilisation of heavy metals from the anoxic sediment due to oxidation, the samples were exposed to different oxidants (i.e. atmospheric air and hydrogen peroxide) and afterwards submitted to a leaching test. These experiments showed that although oxidation may increase the equilibrium pore water concentrations of heavy metals in the sediments, other sediment mineral fractions seem to effectively immobilise heavy metals potentially released from the oxidisable fraction.     

Short-Term Forecasting of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO<Subscript>2</Subscript>) Levels Using a Hybrid Statistical and Air Mass History Modelling Approach

A novel hybrid model has been developed to support the provision of real-time air quality forecasts. Statistical techniques have been applied in parallel with air mass history modelling to provide an efficient and accurate forecasting system with the ability to identify high NO₂ events, which tend to be the episodes of most significance in Ireland. Air mass history modelling and k-means clustering are used to identify air mass types that lead to high NO₂ levels in Ireland. Trajectory matching techniques allow data associated with these air masses to be partitioned during model development. Non-parametric regression (NPR) has been applied to describe nonlinear variations in concentration levels with wind speed, direction and season and produce a set of linearized factors which, together with other meteorological variables, are employed as inputs to a multiple linear regression. The model uses an innovative integrated approach to combine the NPR with the air mass history modelling results. On validation, a correlation coefficient of 0.75 was obtained, and 91 % of daily maximum (hourly averaged) NO₂ predictions were within a factor of two of the measured value. High pollution events were well captured, as indicated by strong agreement between measured and modelled high percentile values. The model requires only simple input data, does not require an emission inventory and utilises very low computational resources. It represents an accurate and efficient means of producing real-time air quality forecasts and, when used in combination with forecaster experience, is a useful tool for identifying periods of poor air quality 24 h in advance. The hybrid approach outlined in this paper can easily be applied to produce high-quality forecasts of both NO₂ and additional pollutants at new locations/countries where historical monitoring data are available.     

Characterizing the long-range transport of black carbon aerosols during Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) experiment

A major aircraft experiment Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) mission over the NW Pacific in March-April 2001 was conducted to better understand how outflow from the Asian continent affects the composition of the global atmosphere. In this paper, a global climate model, GEOS-Chem is used to investigate possible black carbon aerosol contributions from TRACE-P region. Our result depicts that absorbing black carbon ("soot") significantly outflow during lifting to the free troposphere through warm conveyor belt and convection associated with this lifting. The GEOS-Chem simulation results show significant transport of black carbon aerosols from Asian regions to the Western Pacific region during the spring season. As estimated by GEOS-Chem simulations, approximately 25% of the black carbon concentrations over the western pacific originate from SE Asia in the spring.     

The Comparison of Lagrangian and Gaussian Models in Predicting of Air Pollution Emission Using Experimental Study,a Case Study: Ammonia Emission

Ammonia, as a colorless gas with a sharp odor, is considered as one of the created odors in the composting and landfill of solid waste. We used experimental data to study the robustness of AERMOD and the forward Lagrangian stochastic (FLS) in predicting ammonia emission in short range. The study area was Kahrizak landfill and composting plants, Tehran, Iran. The boundary layer parameters for the FLS were calculated on the basis of mean values of temperature, wind speed, and direction. While, the boundary layers of AERMOD were computed on the basis of exact meteorological data. The results depicted that AERMOD prediction at distances less than 1000 m from the sources and the locations inside the sources were poor. However, the results of FLS indicated more agreement with the field measurement, which the coefficient of determination was 0.83. Both models predicted, in the distance of 2000 m from the source, the ammonia concentration would be insignificant.     

Simulating Unstressed Crop Development and Growth Using the Unified Plant Growth Model (UPGM)

Since initial development of the EPIC model in 1989, the EPIC plant growth component has been incorporated into other erosion and crop management models (e.g., WEPS, WEPP, SWAT, ALMANAC, and GPFARM) and subsequently modified to meet research objectives of the model developers. This has resulted in different versions of the same base plant growth component. The objectives of this study are the following: (1) describe the standalone Unified Plant Growth Model (UPGM), initially derived from the WEPS plant growth model, to be used for merging enhancements from other EPIC-based plant growth models; and (2) describe and evaluate new phenology, seedling emergence, and canopy height sub-models derived from the Phenology Modular Modeling System (PhenologyMMS V1.2) and incorporated into UPGM. A 6-year (2005–2010) irrigated maize (Zea mays L.) study from northeast Colorado was used to calibrate and evaluate UPGM running both the original (i.e., based on WEPS) and new phenology, seedling emergence, and canopy height sub-models. Model statistics indicated the new sub-models usually resulted in better simulation results than the original sub-models. For example when comparing original and new sub-models, respectively, for predicting canopy height, the root mean square error (RMSE) was 53.7 and 40.7 cm, index of agreement (d) was 0.84 and 0.92, relative error (RE) was 26.0 and ?1.26 %, and normalized objective function (NOF) was 0.47 and 0.33. The new sub-models predict leaf number (old sub-models do not), with mean values for 4 years of 2.43 leaves (RMSE), 0.78 (d), 18.38 % (RE), and 0.27 (NOF). Simulating grain yield, final above ground biomass, and harvest index showed little difference when running the original or new sub-models. Both the new phenology and seedling emergence sub-models respond to varying water deficits, increasing the robustness of UPGM for more diverse environmental conditions. Future research will continue working to incorporate existing enhancements from other EPIC-based plant growth models to unify them into one model such as multispecies competition and N cycling.     

天津市区不同土地利用类型地表径流污染特征及治理对策

剖析土地利用方式与污染物的内在联系是非点源污染研究基本出发点.本文研究了天津市区屋面、商业区、交通区、居民区不同土地利用类型径流污染特征,并针对不同的污染情况提出雨水利用与污染防治的合理化建议.     

Pollution characteristics of volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere of Haicang District in Xiamen City, Southeast China

The compositions, spatial distributions, seasonal variations and ozone formation potential (OFP) of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were investigated in the atmosphere of Haicang District, Xiamen City, Southeast China. Twenty-four types of VOCs were measured in this study, and ethanol, methylene chloride, toluene, ethyl acetate and isopropyl alcohol were the abundant species based on concentration rank. The concentrations of total VOCs (TVOCs) in industrial areas were higher than those in residential and administrative areas and background site. For industrial areas, the TVOCs concentrations in summer were higher than those in winter, which might result from higher emissions from industrial activities because of stronger evaporation in summer. In contrast, non-industrial areas showed higher concentrations in winter due to the unfavorable meteorological conditions. The spatial distribution of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) followed the order of industrial areas > residential and administrative areas > background site, and the concentrations in summer were lower than those in winter for most sites. The high ratios (8.9-14.0) of T/B in this study indicated that industrial emissions were the main sources in this district. X/B ratios were used to assess the ages of air parcels and provided evidence of the transport of air parcels among these sites. Total OFP (TOFP) showed the trend of increase with the increase of TVOCs, and toluene was found as the major contributor to TOFP.     

Objectives,components and experiences in the development of The IOC Marine Pollution Monitoring System (MARPOLMON)

The Marine Pollution Monitoring System (MARPOLMON) constitutes a marine chemical component of the Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS). The Programme covers all matters related to marine pollution research and associated monitoring activities required for the assessment of marine pollution. MARPOLMON constitutes the data-gathering activity, being directed to accurately determine levels of selected contaminants in several phases of the marine environment in various regions of the World Ocean. It is envisaged to utlize MARPOLMON generated data for the purposes of construction of mass-balances and making contamination and pollution assessments in regional and global contexts.Data gathering, reporting and exchange requires stringent control of the quality of the information retrieved, which in turn dictates the development and testing of standard methodology, its widespread adoption and intercomparison of methods and feedback-refinement of orogonal methods or hypotheses.     

Chemical speciation and partitioning of trace metals (Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb) in the lower Athabasca river and its tributaries (Alberta, Canada)

Concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Ni and Pb were measured in particulate and dissolved phases at 11 sites located upstream and near Athabasca oil sands development. The in situ discrimination between non-labile and labile dissolved metals was done using diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) devices. The DGT-labile fraction of Co and Ni was 30% lower near development sites whereas Cu, Cd and Pb showed minor changes spatially. It was found that an 8-fold increase in dissolved organic matter (DOM) near development induced a rapid decrease in DGT-labile metals. Dissolved metal concentrations were used along with DOM, major ions, nutrients, pH and conductivity to calculate the distribution of dissolved metal species using the speciation model WHAM. Labile-DGT metal concentrations agreed well with WHAM-predicted concentrations. It was also found that a significant amount of metals were associated with the non-DGT labile fraction (i.e. colloidal DOM) and colloid abundance was more important than suspended particulate matter abundance in influencing metal mobility near Athabasca oil soils development. Since changes in colloidal DOM levels are likely to be the result of surface mining activities, this confirms the serious effects of oil sands activities on metal biogeochemical cycles in the lower Athabasca River.     

Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Their Sources in the Air of Izmir, Turkey

Air samples were collected in Izmir, Turkey at two (suburban and urban) sites during three sampling programs in 2002 and 2004 to determine the ambient concentrations of several monoaromatic, chlorinated and oxygenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Samples were analyzed for 60 VOCs using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and 28 compounds were detected in most samples. On the average, urban air VOC concentrations were about four times higher than those measured at the suburban site. Toluene (40.6%) was the most abundant compound in suburban site and was followed by benzene (7.4%), o,m-xylene (6.5%), and 1,2-dichloroethane (5.1%). In urban site, toluene (30.5%), p-xylene (14.9%), o,m-xylene (11.4%), and ethyl benzene (7.2%) were the dominating compounds in summer. In winter, toluene (31.1%), benzene (23.9%), 1,2-dichloroethane (9.5%), and o,m-xylene (8.2%) were the most abundant compounds. Receptor modeling (positive matrix factorization) has been performed to estimate the contribution of specific source types to ambient concentrations. Six source factors (gasoline vehicle exhaust, diesel vehicle exhaust+residential heating, paint production/application, degreasing, dry cleaning, and an undefined source) were extracted from the samples collected in the urban site. Three source factors (gasoline vehicle exhaust, diesel vehicle exhaust, and paint production/application) were identified for the suburban site.     

Assessment of the Heavy Metal Pollution Effects on the Soil Respiration in the Baix Llobregat (Catalonia, NE Spain)

A main goal of investigations is to determine could a soilrespiration be an indicator of the soil pollution. In this case a measured levelof the soil oxygen consumption depends of its pollution. It alsomeans that the pollution reduces biological processes in edaphon.Investigated soil samples were taken from polluted andnon-polluted places in the Baix Llobregat near Barcelona (Catalonia, NE Spain). Soil samples were taken from the top ofsoil (0–5 cm) without a litter. Soil analysis were done, determining percentage shares of coarsefragments, coarse sand, fine sand, coarse silt, fine silt, clay,CaCO₃, organic matter as well as water pH and conductivityCE (1:5 [mS cm^-1]). Also were determined (in mg kg^-1)quantities of heavy metals, as Fe, Al, Mn, Zn, Cr, Ni, V, Cu, Cd, Pb.The soil respiration was investigated in temperatures15 and 30 °C and with controlled humidity.The respiration in 30 °C is number of times greater thenin 15 °C both for polluted and non-polluted soils.Particularly high coefficients of correlation between the soilrespiration and soil pollution in polluted soils were obtainedfor Pb: r = 0.75 in 15 °C and r = 0.98 in30 °C; for Ba: 0.90 and 0.57; for V: 0.99 and 0.81. In non-polluted soils highest correlation coefficients are for Pb: r = 0.70 in 15 °C; Fe: 0.60 and 0.72; Al: 0.68 and0.64; Mn: 0.51 and 0.66; Ba: 0.63 and 0.61; Cr: 0.94 and0.70; Ni: 0.64 and 0.65; Cu: 0.69 and 0.48; as well as V: 0.62in 15 °C; and Cd: 0.69 in 15 °C.This way the soil respiration could be a good indicator of the soil pollution.     

Floristics, performance and prognosis of historical trees in the urban forest of Guangzhou City (China)

Outstanding historical trees embedded in cities constitute pertinent environmental assets, yet they are widely threatened in third-world cities. Inadequate understanding of this valuable natural-cum-cultural heritage hinders proper conservation. A case study of Guangzhou in south China evaluated floristic composition, age profile and biomass structure of historical trees, assessed their performance in major habitats (institutional, park and roadside), and established a prognosis for future growth and management. The 348 historical trees examined belonged to only 25 species, vis-à -vis 254 trees in the entire urban forest, dominated by five species and native members. Roadside had more trees, followed by institutional and park, with merely the most common four species shared by all habitats. The limited commonality reflected tree-performance differentiation by habitats exerting selection pressure on species. The institutional growth-regime was more conducive to nurturing high-caliber specimens, whereas park is less capable. Individual species achievement by habitats, derived from tree-count ranking and relative-abundance indices, could inform species choice and tree conservation. Few trees exceeded 300 years of age in the millennium-old city, echoing a history of intense tree—city conflicts. Potential life-span, trunk and crown diameters indicated ample opportunities for further expansion of biomass and landscape impacts, which would be straitjacketed by the tightening urban fabric.