Using dispersion models at microscale to assess long-term air pollution in urban hot spots: A FAIRMODE joint intercomparison exercise for a case study in Antwerp

In the framework of the Forum for Air Quality Modelling in Europe (FAIRMODE), a modelling intercomparison exercise for computing NO2 long-term average concentrations in urban districts with a very high spatial resolution was carried out. This exercise was undertaken for a district of Antwerp (Belgium). Air quality data includes data recorded in air quality monitoring stations and 73 passive samplers deployed during one-month period in 2016. The modelling domain was 800 × 800 m2. Nine modelling teams participated in this exercise providing results from fifteen different modelling applications based on different kinds of model approaches (CFD – Computational Fluid Dynamics-, Lagrangian, Gaussian, and Artificial Intelligence). Some approaches consisted of models running the complete one-month period on an hourly basis, but most others used a scenario approach, which relies on simulations of scenarios representative of wind conditions combined with post-processing to retrieve a one-month average of NO2 concentrations. The objective of this study is to evaluate what type of modelling system is better suited to get a good estimate of long-term averages in complex urban districts. This is very important for air quality assessment under the European ambient air quality directives. The time evolution of NO2 hourly concentrations during a day of relative high pollution was rather well estimated by all models. Relative to high resolution spatial distribution of one-month NO2 averaged concentrations, Gaussian models were not able to give detailed information, unless they include building data and street-canyon parameterizations. The models that account for complex urban geometries (i.e. CFD, Lagrangian, and AI models) appear to provide better estimates of the spatial distribution of one-month NO2 averages concentrations in the urban canopy. Approaches based on steady CFD-RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes) model simulations of meteorological scenarios seem to provide good results with similar quality to those obtained with an unsteady one-month period CFD-RANS simulations.

MARTIN Fernando;  JANSSEN Stijn;  RODRIGUES Vera;  SOUSA Jorge;  SANTIAGO José Luís;  RIVAS Emanuel;  STOCKER Jenny;  JACKSON R;  RUSSO Felicita;  VILLANI Gabriella;  TINARELLI G.;  BARBERO D;  SAN JOSE Roberto;  PEREZ-CAMANYO Juan Luis;  SOUSA SANTOS Gabriella;  BARTZIS John;  SAKELLARIS I;  HORVATH Zoltan;  KÖRNYEI L.;  LISZKAI B.;  KOVACS A.;  JURADO X.;  REIMINGER N;  THUNIS Philippe;  CUVELIER Cornelis; 

2024-06-05

ELSEVIER

JRC136617

0048-9697 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724019041,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC136617,   

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171761 (online),