Trafic pollution in a downtown site of Buenos Aires City

HORACIO ALEJANDRO BOGO; D R, GÓMEZ; S L, REICH; R M, NEGRI; ROMÁN E, SAN

ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2001 vol. 35 p. 1717 - 1727

1352-2310

It has recently been recognized that air and noise pollution constitutes an extended problem over the denselypopulated city of Buenos Aires. Tra$c emissions are of paramount concern, especially along narrow and main tra$carteries. In spite of these considerations, few systematic studies have been undertaken to evaluate the air quality in themetropolitan area of the city. In 1996, concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide(NO2) and ozone (O3) were simultaneously measured for the "rst time using a continuous monitoring station. Thisstation was placed in a building at Belgrano Avenue, which is a heavy tra$c street in the downtown area of the city (Bogoet al., Atmospheric Environment 33 (1999) 2587. In this work, we analyze the dependence of the measured primarypollutants, CO and the mixture of nitrogen oxides (NOx), with meteorological conditions, tra$c emissions andmonitoring location. We compare the registered values with the results obtained from modeling the dispersion of thepollutants emitted from mobile and area sources. We also discuss the relevance of street canyon e!ects compared withbackground concentrations of these pollutants. ( 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.