New approaches for urban and regional air pollution modelling and management

PULIAFITO, ENRIQUE; ALLENDE, DAVID; FERNÁNDEZ, RAFAEL; CASTRO, FERNANDO; CREMADES, PABLO

Advance in Air Pollution

Intech

Lugar: Rijeka; Año: 2011; p. 429 - 454

Air Quality Models (AQMs) are mathematical tools that simulate the physical and chemical processes that involve air pollutants as they disperse and react in the atmosphere. Furthermore, they improve the limitations of monitoring networks by providing prediction of the temporal and spatial distribution of actual pollution levels. Modelling studies, in combination with air quality monitoring, are then essential and complementary tools for long and short term air pollution control strategies. A well calibrated model is a unique tool that allows the representation of the atmospheric dynamics and chemistry. Thus, AQMs have become a valid instrument for environmental managers in many activities, such as a) setting emission control regulations, b) testing the compliance of actual pollution levels, c) predicting the impact of new facilities on human health, d) selecting the best location for monitoring stations, and e) assessing the impact of different emissions scenarios on Global Climate Change. This Chapter presents an overview of several techniques and available codes applied to urban modelling, plus describing three test cases from different approaches that we have selected according to the magnitude of the simulated problem.