The value of accurate air quality forecasts critically depends upon how the information will be used. This paper proposes a simple model of private firm decision-making under uncertainty to consider potential economic applications and benefits from accurate air quality forecasts. It uses the findings of a survey of employees from five large employers in southern New Hampshire and northeastern ...
Ozone and particulate matter levels in Southern European countries are particularly high, exceeding the established limit values, and the information and alert thresholds (in the case of ozone). Therefore, it is relevant to develop a good prediction methodology for the concentrations of these pollutants. Statistical models based on Multiple Regression (MR) analysis and classification and ...
An overview of the main findings of recent sensitivity studies and evaluations of ozone forecasts of the Air Quality model for Austria (AQA) is presented. Before the operational forecasts were started at the ZAMG, studies with different model input were conducted to find the appropriate model set–up. The performance of the chemical mechanisms CB–IV and SAPRC99 is shown for a hot period with ...
In an attempt to meet the public's needs for information on air quality a variety of indexes have been developed and they continue to evolve. To show the complexity and the diversity of such indices, a variety of current air quality indices are described here and compared in regard to their performance and ability to deliver quality information. A number of characteristics seem desirable for an ...
This work aims at developing and validating a numerical air quality operational forecasting system that will be applied over Portugal. The CHIMERE model was chosen for the chemistry-transport simulation using the meteorological parameters supplied by the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model, forced by the AVN/NCEP global forecasts. An experiment of 48-hour real-time forecast simulations was ...
The feature articles published in this month’s issue describe various near-realtime data resources and provide examples of how they are being used to facilitate air quality forecasting and daily decision-making. The articles reinforce the importance of making as much environmental data as possible available to the public in real time. The major national source of realtime air quality data is ...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently sponsored the New England Forecasting Pilot Program to serve as a “test bed” for chemical forecasting by providing all of the elements of a National Air Quality Forecasting System, including the development and implementation of an evaluation protocol. This Pilot Program enlisted three regional-scale air quality models, serving as ...
This paper presents an overview of the University of Western Macedonia's (UoWM) operational model for predicting the prevailing meteorological and air quality conditions on a high resolution (2 × 2 km²) scale. The MM5 – SMOKE – CMAQ has been suitably parameterised with respect to the particular geographical and climatic characteristics of the region of West Macedonia. The system is designed to ...
To develop effective air quality management strategies at regional and urban levels requires the preparation of several actions belonging to different scientific areas and analysis of their complex interactions. A well-structured management system must be based on efficient tools that integrate diverse sets of information - emissions, traffic, meteorological variables and air quality data. ...
Forecasts for the NOx concentration levels in the Greater Athens area in 2004 are compared to the corresponding figures for 1990. Simulations are performed for two meteorological cases using four different dispersion models. Two different emission inventories are employed in the simulations. The first is based on the conditions for the year 1990, while the second is the reference scenario for the ...
In recent years, urban air pollution has emerged as an acute problem because of its negative effect on health and living conditions. Regional air quality problems, in general, are linked to violations of specified air quality standards. The current study aims to find neural network based air quality predictors, which can work with a limited number of datasets and are robust enough to handle data ...
School is starting, but warm weather means we are still spending more time outside and keeping windows open as much as possible. However, it doesn’t mean we are safe from poor indoor air quality at home. In fact, indoor air may be more polluted in the summer months than in the wintertime. The reasons include high humidity, pollutant buildup, pesticides and VOCs. There are certain habits in ...
Different operational air quality forecasts (ESSEM Cost Action 0602) are currently available in Europe. However, most of them are not suitable for regional application and, also, their coarse outputs do not fit well with air quality management needs. In this work, PRESAXIO regional air quality modelling system is validated and applied over Galicia (NW of Spain), including WRF and CHIMERE models. ...
The characters in this story are fictional. However the data are real. The story is set on 27 July 2008 when an air quality warning was issued in Brussels. Anna is 37 years old and lives in the centre of Brussels. She and her young son Johan are planning a trip outside the busy city. Anna suffers from asthma and her doctor has warned of the dangers of air pollution, especially on hot summer days. ...
Relationships between winter air pollutant concentrations and ten meteorological parameters were investigated based on observed pollutant concentrations and high–resolution meteorological data from weather research and forecast model, and multiple linear regression models were developed for estimating NO2 and PM10 concentrations over ...
Mining operations include blasting, excavating, scraping, and sifting large amounts of dirt. These activities create dust and other emissions that are transported by air currents to surrounding areas. It is easy to say that dangerous particulate matter (PM) generated by mining should be monitored and kept to a minimum; however, it is very challenging to measure the levels of contaminants in the ...
Many cities and regions are undertaking studies of air quality in cities to determine both the current state of the environment and the effect of future economic and environmental strategies in order to manage local air quality. Often these studies are driven by legislation such as the European Union requirement to model agglomerations or the Chinese requirements to study air quality capacity and ...
A statistical approach is about working through the historical data in a general way and finding guides to future behaviour. In the present study, forecasting of the criteria pollutants has been done using simple statistical techniques and attempt has been made for an inter-comparison of these techniques with various advanced statistical and deterministic techniques. The inter-comparison analysis ...
This work presents the results of a photochemical modelling system composed of MM5–SMOKE–CMAQ on Brazilian Amazonia area, been a pioneered implementation task. These results focus on the biogenic and biomass burning emissions and the impact of these emissions on regional air quality. Global and local anthropogenic emissions data, satellite–derived biomass burning inventories, ...
This paper describes the development of artificial neural network-based vehicular exhaust emission models for predicting 8-h average carbon monoxide concentrations at two air quality control regions (AQCRs) in the city of Delhi, India, viz. a typical traffic intersection (AQCR1) and a typical arterial road (AQCR2). Maximum of ten meteorological and six traffic characteristic variables have been ...