Impacts of the Tree Canopy and Chemical Reactions on the Dispersion of Reactive Pollutants in Street Canyons

Traffic-related air pollution in street canyons can cause health problems for pedestrians. In order to clarify the behavior of reactive pollutants, such as NOx and O<sub>3</sub>, in street canyons, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model coupled with a chemistry model and tree canopy...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Franchesca G. Gonzalez Olivardia, Tomohito Matsuo, Hikari Shimadera, Akira Kondo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-12-01
Series:Atmosphere
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/1/34
Description
Summary:Traffic-related air pollution in street canyons can cause health problems for pedestrians. In order to clarify the behavior of reactive pollutants, such as NOx and O<sub>3</sub>, in street canyons, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model coupled with a chemistry model and tree canopy model was developed, and then, a set of numerical experiments were performed to investigate the impacts of chemical reactions and aerodynamic effects of trees planted in a canyon. The results were compared with the observation data. Through the results of the numerical experiments designed to simulate a realistic urban street canyon, it was found that chemical reactions have a dominant impact on the NO/NO<sub>2</sub> ratio and O<sub>3</sub> concentration. While the tree canopy had little impact on the NO/NO<sub>2</sub> ratio, it had a moderate impact on the flow field in the canyon and the amount of NOx and O<sub>3</sub> in the canyon. In accordance with the aerodynamic effects of tree canopies, the local NOx concentration in the experiments increased and decreased by up to 51% and 11%, respectively. The current findings of this study demonstrate the utility of the proposed model for conducting air quality investigations in urban areas.
ISSN:2073-4433