Mapping the Air Quality in the City of Patras by Combining Mobile Platform Measurements and CFD Simulations

Abstract

Atmospheric pollution remains a major human health problem in most Greek cities. Motor vehicles are important sources of gaseous and particulate pollutants. In recent years, the situation is further perplexed due to the economic crisis and the use of woodstoves and fireplaces for residential heating. In order to measure and analyze the concentrations of particulate matter and its chemical constituents within urban areas with high spatial and time resolution, we have developed a mobile laboratory capable of measuring air pollution concentrations in real time. Mobile measurements facilitate emissions characterization, hot-spot identification and air pollution mapping. In this first phase of measurements, three types of instruments were installed in the mobile platform and were used for measurements. These instruments measure the number and size distribution of the aerosol, the gas-phase concentrations of major pollutants and black carbon. The data from mobile monitoring were compared with the results of computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation models. This allows evaluation of the contributions of multiple pollutants in the city streets and assessment of the effects of the local confinement of pollutants between buildings, phenomenon known as the street canyon effect. We present representative results for the city of Patras.