Intercomparison of Atmospheric Dispersion Models Applied to an Urban Street Canyon of Irregular Geometry

Received: November 4, 2017
Revised: January 30, 2018
Accepted: January 30, 2018
Download Citation: RIS|BibTeX|https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2017.11.0489 

Cite this article:
Dezzutti, M., Berri, G. and Venegas, L. (2018). Intercomparison of Atmospheric Dispersion Models Applied to an Urban Street Canyon of Irregular Geometry. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 18: 820-828. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2017.11.0489

HIGHLIGHTS

• Intercomparison of air pollution dispersion models for urban canyons.
• Urban street canyon of irregular geometry.
• Model calculations validated with NO_x concentration measurements.
• Simple parametric dispersion model SEUS provides the best results.

ABSTRACT

The NO_x concentrations measured at the sampling site of Cordoba Avenue, Buenos Aires City, characterised by an irregular geometry on both sides of the street, are used to intercompare results of five urban street canyon dispersion models, STREET, OSPM, AEOLIUSF, STREET-BOX and SEUS. Three different wind directions with respect to the street axis are considered, i.e., leeward, windward and parallel. Additionally, two wind speed classes are considered, above and below 2 m s^–1. In order to evaluate the models performance, observed and calculated concentrations are compared using different statistical measures, i.e., mean values, bias, mean square error and fractional error. In general, all models estimate better leeward conditions and wind speeds above 2 m s^–1, with SEUS providing the overall best result.

Keywords: Atmospheric dispersion models; Intercomparison of results; Urban street canyon with irregular geometry.