NESTED HIGH-RESOLUTION NOx AND PM SIMULATIONS OVER ZÜRICH

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo Suter ◽  
Lukas Emmenegger ◽  
Dominik Brunner
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Model Systems ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Concentration Levels

<p>Reducing air pollution, which is the world's largest single environmental health risk, demands better-informed air quality policies. Consequently, multi-scale air quality models are being developed with the goal to resolve cities. One of the major challenges in such model systems is to accurately represent all large- and regional-scale processes that may critically determine the background concentration levels over a given city. This is particularly true for longer-lived species such as aerosols, for which background levels often dominate the concentration levels, even within the city. Furthermore, the heterogeneous local emissions, and complex dispersion in the city have to be considered carefully.</p><p>In this study, the impact of processes across a wide range of scales on background concentrations over Switzerland and the city of Zurich was modelled by performing one year of nested European and Swiss national COSMO-ART simulations to obtain adequate boundary conditions for gas-phase chemical, aerosol and meteorological conditions for city-resolving simulations. The regional climate chemistry model COSMO-ART (Vogel et al. 2009) was used in a 1-way coupled mode. The outer, European, domain, which was driven by chemical boundary conditions from the global MOZART model, had a 6.6 km horizontal resolution and the inner, Swiss, domain one of 2.2 km. For the city scale, a catalogue of more than 1000 mesoscale flow patterns with 100 m resolution was created with the model GRAMM, based on a discrete set of atmospheric stabilities, wind speeds and directions, accounting for the influence of land-use and topography. Finally, the flow around buildings was solved with the CFD model GRAL forced at the boundaries by GRAMM. Subsequently, Lagrangian dispersion simulations for a set of air pollutants and emission sectors (traffic, industry, ...) based on extremely detailed building and emission data was performed in GRAL. The result of this nested procedure is a library of 3-dimensional air pollution maps representative of hourly situations in Zurich (Berchet et al. 2017). From these pre-computed situations, time-series and concentration maps can be obtained by selecting situations according to observed or modelled meteorological conditions.</p><p>The results were compared to measurements from air quality monitoring network stations. Modelled concentrations of NO<sub>x</sub> and PM compared well to measurements across multiple locations, provided background conditions were considered carefully. The nested multi-scale modelling system COSMO-ART/GRAMM/GRAL can adequately reproduce local air quality and help understanding the relative contributions of local versus distant emissions, as well as fill the space between precise point measurements from monitoring sites. This information is useful for research, policy-making, and epidemiological studies particularly under the assumption that exceedingly high concentrations become more and more localised phenomenon in the future.</p>

scholarly journals Evaluation of the impact of meteorological conditions on the amount of air pollution in Krakow

2019 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 02012
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Piaskowska-Silarska ◽  
Krzysztof Pytel ◽  
Stanisław Gumuła ◽  
Wiktor Hudy
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Ecological Monitoring ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Pollution Problem ◽  
Air Quality Improvement ◽  
Meteorological Elements ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. The publication presents an assessment of the impact of meteorological conditions on air quality in a given location. The subject matter of the work is related to problem-review issues in the field of environmental protection and energy management. The publication draws attention to the fact that despite several decades of ecological monitoring of air pollution, only in recent years attention has been paid to the scale of air pollution problem. The study examined the relationship between meteorological elements (wind velocity, relative humidity on the amount of air pollution immissions. Significant impact of precipitation, atmospheric pressure and thermal braking layer was indicated. The possibilities of air quality improvement were presented based on the measurement data concerning the immission of impurities.

scholarly journals Effects of Air Pollution on Consumer Decision-Making Behavior: A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Yifan Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Consumer Decision Making ◽  
Consumer Decision ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Consumption Decision ◽  
Decision Making Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Purpose/Significance: In recent years, consumer behavior studies have shown that weather and air quality have a significant impact on consumers' purchasing behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the different ways and causes of consumers' responses to weather conditions. However, the existing relevant research results are scattered in different disciplines and lack of summary and sorting of the research topic. By systematically reviewing the impact of air pollution on consumer decision-making, we can fully understand the change of consumer behavior caused by air pollution factors at the macro level and help enterprise managers to develop targeted marketing management strategies to avoid or reduce the impact of air quality on consumer decision-making behavior. Design/Method: This paper systematically reviews the impact of air pollution on consumers' decision-making behavior based on key keywords retrieved from major academic literature databases and search engine websites. In detail, with the framework of the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model in the field of environmental psychology and based on the process perspective, the paper divides the impacts of air pollution on consumer's decision-making behavior into the change of body and mind before consumer decision-making process, change of the decision behavior in the process of consumption decision-making and consumption experience and evaluation behavior after the process of consumption decision making. Conclusion/Findings: By establishing and analyzing the thematic structure of studies on the impact of air pollution, the results show that air pollution has a wide range of impacts on consumers, ranging from health risks to mood changes and from changes in daily habits to changes in consumption behaviors of individuals and groups.

The Impact of Climate Change on Air Quality–Related Meteorological Conditions in California. Part II: Present versus Future Time Simulation Analysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (13) ◽  
pp. 3362-3376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhan Zhao ◽  
Shu-Hua Chen ◽  
Michael J. Kleeman ◽  
Abdullah Mahmud
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was applied to dynamically downscale the Parallel Climate Model (PCM) projection for the climate change impact on regional meteorological conditions in California. Comparisons were made for meteorological fields that strongly influence regional air quality between the current (2000–06) and future (2047–53) downscaling results to infer potential air pollution changes in California. Changes in both the meteorological fields and the implied future air quality vary by region and season. Analyses showed that the normalized number of stagnation days (NNSD) integrating all stagnation events, during which most of the air pollution episodes occur, in California's San Joaquin Valley (SJV) will increase and the intensity of stagnation will be stronger in the future for the two main air pollution seasons (i.e., summer and winter). Increases in surface wind and planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) were observed for the coastal part of Los Angeles County (LAC) during summer, suggesting stronger ventilation in this region. Contrary situations were seen in other parts of the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) and SJV. Although a surface wind change was not evident in SJV during winter, there was a significant PBLH decrease. Climatechangeinduced variations in surface wind and PBLH were only statistically significant in coastal SoCAB and the southern portion of SJV relative to the corresponding interannual variability; changes in temperature are significant throughout the regions studied. The sea breeze along the coast of California plays an important role in the state's climate and air quality, especially during summertime owing to the stronger intensity compared to wintertime. Analysis of the land–sea temperature contrast and the southwesterly wind along the California coastline indicated that the summertime sea breeze will be stronger in the Central Valley (CV) but weaker for the SoCAB region in the future.

scholarly journals The State of Air Pollution as a Factor Determining the Assessment of a City’s Tourist Attractiveness—Based on the Opinions of Polish Respondents

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Łapko ◽  
Aleksander Panasiuk ◽  
Roma Strulak-Wójcikiewicz ◽  
Marek Landowski
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Subjective Assessment ◽  
The State ◽  
City Tourism ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Travel Decisions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Cities are multifunctional by definition, and an increasingly significant function is the tourist function. City tourism is one of the most dynamically developing forms of tourism. Tourists’ decisions regarding choosing a destination are influenced by a number of factors determining the subjective assessment of the tourist attractiveness of a given city, and one of them may be the state of air pollution, as it can have a negative impact on the health of both city dwellers and tourists. This article is an attempt to determine whether potential tourists consider information about the level of a city’s air quality in the assessment of its tourist attractiveness and the impact of this information on their travel decisions. The article presents the results of surveys conducted among a group of 509 respondents from Poland. On this basis, an assessment was made of the extent to which information on the condition of air quality in a given city is relevant for persons planning a tourist trip. In the conducted research, decisions regarding both business and private trips were evaluated. In addition, information on factors that could increase the respondents’ interest in the condition of air quality in the city of the intended trip (e.g., trip with children, trip length) was collected. Due to the fact that tourism is a significant source of income for many cities, the research results presented in the article may be of significant importance for entities creating the urban tourist product and responsible for its management. The article also draws attention to the fact that reducing pollution in cities can contribute to increases in their tourist attractiveness.

scholarly journals Models of Air Pollution Propagation in the Selected Region of Katowice

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 695
Author(s):  
Dariusz Foszcz ◽  
Tomasz Niedoba ◽  
Jarosław Siewior
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Forecast Accuracy ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Particulate Emissions ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Heating Systems ◽  
The Impact

The paper deals with issues related to analyzing the spread of air pollution and pollutants in large urban agglomerations, specifically, the search for causality between meteorological conditions and the concentrations of particular substances. The pollutants SO2 and PM10 were selected for analysis, which, in addition to NOx, CO, CO2 and PM2.5, contribute to smog, especially during the heating seasons. This analysis is particularly important because Polish environmental standards are more lenient than those in western EU states. Industrial activity, transport and heating systems based on coal-burning are still a big problem in Poland, and each year their gaseous and particulate emissions exceed air-quality limits. This paper presents a statistical analysis of data recorded at the air-quality monitoring station on Kossuth Street in Katowice concerning the heating seasons from 2013–2016. The verification of proposed parabolic models containing concentrations from previous time periods and statistically significant meteorological conditions was conducted for individual heating seasons as well for the whole set of data, which included the influence of wind speed and temperature. The models obtained proved that the selected form of a model is statistically significant, and its use may produce satisfactory forecast results and permit various environmental applications. The specified model might be used both for forecasting (verification and possibly updating coefficients to increase forecast accuracy) and analyzing the factors influencing pollution values. Such statistical analysis may be helpful in assessing the impact of measures adopted to reduce air pollution, particularly in large Polish cities.

scholarly journals Environmental Regulation and Exports: Evidence from the Comprehensive Air Pollution Policy in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Chen ◽  
Yang Xu
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Firm Entry ◽  
Entry And Exit ◽  
Control Plan ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Firm Entry And Exit

The impact of environmental regulation has been an important topic. Based on the Chinese Custom Database and China City Statistical Yearbook, this paper investigates the effect of environmental regulation on export values and explores potential mechanisms and heterogeneous effects. Taking advantage of China’s first comprehensive air pollution prevention and control plan, the Air Pollution Control in Key Zones policy, as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ the difference-in-differences method to examine the causal relationship between environmental regulation and exports. We find the statistically significant and negative effect of environmental regulation on exports at the city level. Moreover, we find that the potential mechanism is the change in export values caused by firm entry and exit, especially by exiters, rather than the change in the number of exporting firms in the city caused by firm entry and exit. In addition, we find the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation based on the differences of environmental policy across cities and the Broad Economic Categories classification.

scholarly journals Functional ANOVA approaches for detecting changes in air pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Acal ◽  
Ana M. Aguilera ◽  
Annalina Sarra ◽  
Adelia Evangelista ◽  
Tonio Di Battista ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Functional Data ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Functional Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Pm 10 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Monitoring Stations

AbstractFaced with novel coronavirus outbreak, the most hard-hit countries adopted a lockdown strategy to contrast the spread of virus. Many studies have already documented that the COVID-19 control actions have resulted in improved air quality locally and around the world. Following these lines of research, we focus on air quality changes in the urban territory of Chieti-Pescara (Central Italy), identified as an area of criticality in terms of air pollution. Concentrations of $$\hbox {NO}_{{2}}$$ NO 2 , $$\hbox {PM}_{{10}}$$ PM 10 , $$\hbox {PM}_{2.5}$$ PM 2.5 and benzene are used to evaluate air pollution changes in this Region. Data were measured by several monitoring stations over two specific periods: from 1st February to 10 th March 2020 (before lockdown period) and from 11st March 2020 to 18 th April 2020 (during lockdown period). The impact of lockdown on air quality is assessed through functional data analysis. Our work makes an important contribution to the analysis of variance for functional data (FANOVA). Specifically, a novel approach based on multivariate functional principal component analysis is introduced to tackle the multivariate FANOVA problem for independent measures, which is reduced to test multivariate homogeneity on the vectors of the most explicative principal components scores. Results of the present study suggest that the level of each pollutant changed during the confinement. Additionally, the differences in the mean functions of all pollutants according to the location and type of monitoring stations (background vs traffic), are ascribable to the $$\hbox {PM}_{{10}}$$ PM 10 and benzene concentrations for pre-lockdown and during-lockdown tenure, respectively. FANOVA has proven to be beneficial to monitoring the evolution of air quality in both periods of time. This can help environmental protection agencies in drawing a more holistic picture of air quality status in the area of interest.

scholarly journals The interplay between environmental exposures and COVID-19 risks in the health of children

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Sly ◽  
Brittany A. Trottier ◽  
Catherine M. Bulka ◽  
Stephania A. Cormier ◽  
Julius Fobil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Disease Severity ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Environmental Exposures ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background An unusual feature of SARS-Cov-2 infection and the COVID-19 pandemic is that children are less severely affected than adults. This is especially paradoxical given the epidemiological links between poor air quality and increased COVID-19 severity in adults and that children are generally more vulnerable than adults to the adverse consequences of air pollution. Objectives To identify gaps in knowledge about the factors that protect children from severe SARS-Cov-2 infection even in the face of air pollution, and to develop a transdisciplinary research strategy to address these gaps. Methods An international group of researchers interested in children’s environmental health was invited to identify knowledge gaps and to develop research questions to close these gaps. Discussion Key research questions identified include: what are the effects of SAR-Cov-2 infection during pregnancy on the developing fetus and child; what is the impact of age at infection and genetic susceptibility on disease severity; why do some children with COVID-19 infection develop toxic shock and Kawasaki-like symptoms; what are the impacts of toxic environmental exposures including poor air quality, chemical and metal exposures on innate immunity, especially in the respiratory epithelium; what is the possible role of a “dirty” environment in conveying protection – an example of the “hygiene hypothesis”; and what are the long term health effects of SARS-Cov-2 infection in early life. Conclusion A concerted research effort by a multidisciplinary team of scientists is needed to understand the links between environmental exposures, especially air pollution and COVID-19. We call for specific research funding to encourage basic and clinical research to understand if/why exposure to environmental factors is associated with more severe disease, why children appear to be protected, and how innate immune responses may be involved. Lessons learned about SARS-Cov-2 infection in our children will help us to understand and reduce disease severity in adults, the opposite of the usual scenario.

scholarly journals Scalable kernel-based SVM classification algorithm on imbalance air quality data for proficient healthcare

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shwet Ketu ◽  
Pramod Kumar Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Class Imbalance ◽  
Imbalanced Data ◽  
Classification Algorithm ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Classification Problems ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn the last decade, we have seen drastic changes in the air pollution level, which has become a critical environmental issue. It should be handled carefully towards making the solutions for proficient healthcare. Reducing the impact of air pollution on human health is possible only if the data is correctly classified. In numerous classification problems, we are facing the class imbalance issue. Learning from imbalanced data is always a challenging task for researchers, and from time to time, possible solutions have been developed by researchers. In this paper, we are focused on dealing with the imbalanced class distribution in a way that the classification algorithm will not compromise its performance. The proposed algorithm is based on the concept of the adjusting kernel scaling (AKS) method to deal with the multi-class imbalanced dataset. The kernel function's selection has been evaluated with the help of weighting criteria and the chi-square test. All the experimental evaluation has been performed on sensor-based Indian Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) dataset. The proposed algorithm with the highest accuracy of 99.66% wins the race among all the classification algorithms i.e. Adaboost (59.72%), Multi-Layer Perceptron (95.71%), GaussianNB (80.87%), and SVM (96.92). The results of the proposed algorithm are also better than the existing literature methods. It is also clear from these results that our proposed algorithm is efficient for dealing with class imbalance problems along with enhanced performance. Thus, accurate classification of air quality through our proposed algorithm will be useful for improving the existing preventive policies and will also help in enhancing the capabilities of effective emergency response in the worst pollution situation.

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