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
Martín, F.; Janssen, S.; Rodrigues, V.; Sousa, J.; Santiago, J.L.; Rivas, E.; Stocker, J.; Jackson, R.; Russo, F.; Villani, M.G.; Tinarelli, G.; Barbero, D.; José, R. San; Pérez-Camanyo, J.L.; Sousa Santos, Gabriela; Bartzis, J.; Sakellaris, I.; Horváth, Z.; Környei, L.; Liszkai, B.; Kovács, A.; Jurado, X.; Reiminger, N.; Thunis, P.; Cuvelier, C.
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Date
2024Metadata
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Original version
Science of the Total Environment. 2024, 925, 171761. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171761Abstract
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.