Pedestrian Exposure to Air Pollution in Cities: Modeling the Effect of Roadside Trees

Abstract

The exposure of students to traffic-emitted carbon monoxide (CO) in their daily walk to school is evaluated, with a particular emphasis on the effect of trees and route choice. The study is focused on the city centre of Aveiro, in central Portugal. Time evolution of the georeferenced location of an individual is tracked with a GPS for different alternative walking routes to a school. Spatial distribution of CO concentration is simulated with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. An exposure model is developed that associates the georeferenced location of the student with the computed air quality levels (at an average breathing height) for that specific grid cell. For each individual, the model calculates the instantaneous exposure at each time frame and the mean value for a given period. Results show a general benefit induced by the trees over the mean exposure of the student in each route. However, in the case of instantaneous exposure values, this is not consistent along the entire period. Also, the variability of the estimated exposure values indicates the potential error that can be committed when using a single value of air quality as a surrogate of air pollution exposure.

Passive methods for improving air quality in the built environment: A review of porous and solid barriers

“…Furthermore, preliminary research suggests that the potential to combining these porous barriers with solid barriers may provide the best solution to improving air quality. Amorim et al, 2013a;Amorim et al, 2013b;Baldauf et al, 2008;Brantley et al, 2014;Buccolieri et al, 2009;Buccolieri et al, 2011;Gromke, 2011;Gromke et al, 2008;Gromke andRuck, 2007, 2012;Hagler et al, 2012;Mao et al, 2013;Ng and Chau, 2012;Salmond et al, 2013;Steffens et al, 2012;Wania et al, 2012) Solid Noise barrier Baldauf et al, 2008;Bowker et al, 2007;Finn et al, 2010;Hagler et al, 2012;Hagler et al, 2011;Jeong, 2014;Ning et al, 2010;Schulte et al, 2014;Steffens et al, 2014;Steffens et al, 2013) Low boundary wall Gallagher et al, 2012Gallagher et al, , 2013King et al, 2009;McNabola et al, 2008McNabola et al, , 2009 Parked cars Abhijith and Gokhale, 2015;Gallagher et al, 2011Gallagher et al, , 2013 a Particulate matter (PM) e PM 2.5 , PM 10 , UFP and heavy metals; CO; NO x ; VOCs including benzene. b Includes other inert tracer gas studies (e.g.…”

Using Leaves of Oriental Plane (Platanus orientalis L.) to Determine the Effects of Heavy Metal Pollution Caused by Vehicles

“…In another study that was carried out along the Viranşehir-Kızıltepe Highway in Turkey, similar results were obtained [3]. In another study, it was determined via the air pollution models developed that the heavy metal pollution caused from the intense vehicle traffic led to significant damage to the crown development and leaf surfaces of Acer pseudoplatanus and Quercus robur species located 30-70 km from the city centers [8].…”

A Study on Estimation of Inflow Wind Speeds in a CFD Model Domain for an Urban Area

“…따라서 COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) Action 732에서는 초기 · 경계 조건 설정을 위한 최적의 가이드라인을 제시하였고, 이를 바탕으 로 CFD 모델을 이용한 많은 연구들이 수행되고 있다 (Amorim et al, 2013;Moonen et al, 2013;Gromke et al, 2015). 특히, CFD 모델을 이용하여 도시 지역 의 바람을 수치 모의할 때, 그 도시 지역에 분포하는 지형과 건물 배치에 따라 바람(풍향, 풍속)의 특성은 매우 다르게 나타날 수 있고, 수치 모의 결과는 바람 에 대한 초기 · 경계 조건에 대해 매우 민감하게 나 타날 수 있다 (Schatzmann and Leitl, 2011).…”