Air Quality - Models and Applications

376 Pages·2011·33.894 MB·English

by  D. Popovic

AIR QUALITY ‐ MODELS 
AND APPLICATIONS 

Edited by Dragana Popović
Air Quality - Models and Applications
Edited by Dragana Popović

Published by InTech
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First published June, 2011
Printed in Croatia

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Air Quality - Models and Applications, Edited by Dragana Popović
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-307-307-1
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Contents

Preface IX
Part 1 Mathematical Models and Computing Techniques 1
Chapter 1 Advances in Airborne Pollution Forecasting
Using Soft Computing Techniques 3
Aceves-Fernandez Marco Antonio, Sotomayor-Olmedo Artemio,
Gorrostieta-Hurtado Efren, Pedraza-Ortega Jesus Carlos,
Ramos-Arreguín Juan Manuel, Canchola-Magdaleno Sandra
and Vargas-Soto Emilio
Chapter 2 Urban Air Pollution Modeling 15
Anjali Srivastava and B. Padma S. Rao
Chapter 3 Artificial Neural Network Models for Prediction
of Ozone Concentrations in Guadalajara, Mexico 35
Ignacio García, José G. Rodríguez and Yenisse M. Tenorio
Chapter 4 Meandering Dispersion Model Applied to Air Pollution 53
Gervásio A. Degrazia, Andréa U. Timm,
Virnei S. Moreira and Débora R. Roberti
Chapter 5 Bioaerosol Emissions: A Stochastic Approach 67
Sandra M. Godoy, Alejandro S. M. Santa Cruz
and Nicolás J. Scenna
Chapter 6 Particle Dispersion Within a Deep Open
Cast Coal Mine 81
Sumanth Chinthala and Mukesh Khare
Part 2 Air Pollution Models and Application 99
Chapter 7 Mathematical Modeling of Air Pollutants:
An Application to Indian Urban City 101
P. Goyal and Anikender Kumar
VI Contents

Chapter 8 A Gibbs Sampling Algorithm to Estimate the Occurrence
of Ozone Exceedances in Mexico City 131
Eliane R. Rodrigues, Jorge A. Achcar and Julián Jara-Ettinger
Part 3 Measuring Methodologies in Air Pollution
Monitoring and Control 151
Chapter 9 Optical Measurements of Atmospheric
Aerosols in Air Quality Monitoring 153
Jolanta Kuśmierczyk-Michulec
Chapter 10 A Mobile Measuring Methodology to
Determine Near Surface Carbon
Dioxide within Urban Areas 173
Sascha Henninger
Part 4 Urban Air Pollution: Case Studies 195
Chapter 11 Impacts of Photoexcited NO Chemistry and
2
Heterogeneous Reactions on Concentrations
of O and NO in Beijing,Tianjin
3 y
and Hebei Province of China 197
Junling An, Ying Li, Feng Wang and Pinhua Xie
Chapter 12 Analyzing Black Cloud Dynamics over Cairo,
Nile Delta Region and Alexandria using
Aerosols and Water Vapor Data 211
Hesham M. El-Askary, Anup K. Prasad, George Kallos,
Mohamed El-Raey and Menas Kafatos
Chapter 13 Spatial Variation, Sources and Emission
Rates of Volatile Organic Compounds Over
the Northeastern U.S. 233
Rachel S. Russo,Marguerite L. White, Yong Zhou,
Karl B. Haase, Jesse L. Ambrose, Leanna Conway,
Elizabeth Mentis, Robert Talbot, and Barkley C. Sive
Chapter 14 Evaluation of an Emission Inventory
and Air Pollution in the Metropolitan
Area of Buenos Aires 261
Laura E. Venegas, Nicolás A. Mazzeo and
Andrea L. Pineda Rojas
Chapter 15 Variation of Greenhouse Gases in Urban
Areas-Case Study: CO , CO and CH in
2 4
Three Romanian Cities 289
Iovanca Haiduc and Mihail Simion Beldean-Galea
Contents VII

Part 5 Urban Air Pollution: Health Effects 319
Chapter 16 Assessment of Environmental Exposure
to Benzene: Traditional and New
Biomarkers of Internal Dose 321
Piero Lovreglio,Maria Nicolà D’Errico, Silvia Fustinoni,
Ignazio Drago, Anna Barbieri, Laura Sabatini,
Mariella Carrieri, Pietro Apostoli, Leonardo Soleo
Chapter 17 The Influence of Air Pollutants
on the Acute Respiratory Diseases in Children
in the Urban Area of Guadalajara 341
Ramírez-Sánchez HU, Meulenert-Peña AR,
García-Guadalupe ME, García-Concepción FO,
Alcalá-Gutiérrez J and Ulloa-Godínez HH

Preface

Air pollution has been a major transboundary problem and a matter of global concern 
for decades. High concentrations of different air pollutants may be particularly harm‐
ful to residents of major city areas, where numerous anthropogenic activities (primari‐
ly heavy traffic, domestic and public heating, and various industrial activities), strong‐
ly influence the quality of air. Consequently, air quality monitoring programs become 
a part of urban areas monitoring network and strict air quality standards in urban are‐
as were in the focus of interest of environmental pollution studies in the last decade of 
the 20th century. Although there are many books on the subject, the one in front of you 
will hopefully fulfill some of the gaps in the area of air quality monitoring and model‐
ing, and be of help to graduate students, professionals and researchers. The authors, 
all of them experts in their field, have been invited by the publisher, and also some 
recommendations have been given to them mainly concerning technical details of the 
text, the views and statements they express in  the book is their own responsibility. 
The book is divided in five different sections. 
The first section discusses mathematical models and computing techniques used in air 
pollution monitoring and forecasting. The chapter by Aceves‐Fernandez Marco Anto‐
nio et al., presents and compares the advantages and disadvantages of some airborne 
pollution forecasting methods using soft computing techniques, that include neuro‐
fuzzy inference methods, fuzzy clustering techniques and support vector machines, 
while the chapter on  urban air pollution modeling, by Anjali Srivastava and B. Padma 
S. Rao, is a general overview of the air quality modeling that provides a useful support 
to decision making processes incorporating environmental policies and management 
process. The chapter focuses on urban air models, physical, mathematical and statisti‐
cal, on local to regional scale. An interesting approach is presented in the next chapter 
on artificial neural network (ANN) models for prediction of ozone concentrations, by 
Ignacio García et al.. The authors consider to the great flexibility, efficiency and accu‐
racy of the models that, since having a large number of features similar to those of the 
brain, are capable to learn and thus perform tasks based on training or initial experi‐
ence. The model is applied to the study of tropospheric ozone, as the main component 
of photochemical smog, in the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara, Mexico.
X Preface

In the chapter presenting a meandering dispersion model applied to air pollution by 
Gervásio A. Degrazia et al., the authors discuss the turbulence parameterization tech‐
nique that can be employed in Lagrangian stochastic dispersion models to describe the 
air pollution dispersion in the low wind velocity stable conditions, using two classical 
approaches to obtain the turbulent velocity variances and the decorrelation time 
scales: Taylor statistical diffusion theory  based on the observed turbulent velocity 
spectra, and the Hanna (1982) approach based on analyses of field experiments, theo‐
retical considerations and second‐order closure model.  
Also, in this section Sandra Godoy and the co‐workers in their chapter deal with the 
stochastic approach to the mechanisms of bio aerosols dispersion is atmospheric 
transport, as a phenomenon that cause serious social, health and economic conse‐
quences. Finally, the chapter on particle dispersion within a deep open cast coal mine, 
by Sumanth Chinthala & Mukesh Khare, presents a comprehensive overview of the 
dispersion mechanisms in the deep open pit coal mines considering the topographic, 
thermal and meteorological factors.  
The second section presents two chapters on air pollution models and application. 
First chapter on Mathematical modeling of air pollutants: An application to Indian ur‐
ban city, by P. Goyal and Anikender Kumar, formulates and uses the statistical and 
Eulerian analytical models for prediction of concentrations of air pollutants released 
from different sources and different boundary conditions. The model is applied to the 
city of Delhi, the capital of India, and is validated by the observed data of concentra‐
tion of respirable suspended particulate matter in air. In the second chapter in this sec‐
tion, the authors Eliane R. Rodrigues et al., apply Gibbs sampling algorithm to esti‐
mate the occurrence of ozone exceeding events in Mexico City. 
The third section of the book contains two chapters on measuring methodologies in air 
pollution monitoring and control. The first one, by Jolanta Kuśmierczyk‐Michulec, 
presents an optical method for measuring atmospheric aerosols. The chapter is an 
overview of various efforts tending toward finding a relationship between atmospher‐
ic optical thickness and particulate matter, and discussing possibilities of using the 
Angstrom coefficient in air quality estimation. The second chapter, by Sasha Hen‐
ninger, presents the advantages of a mobile measuring methodology to determine near 
surface carbon dioxide in urban areas.   
Five chapters in the section four are dealing with experimental data on urban air pol‐
lution. The first one, by Junling An et al., discusses the impacts of photoexcited NO2 
chemistry and heterogeneous reactions on concentrations of O3 and NO2 in Beijing, 
Tianjin and Hebei Province of China, using WRF‐CHEM model. The second one, by 
Hesham El‐Askary et al., analyses the phenomena of the  Black Cloud pollution event 
over Cairo, Nile Delta Region and Alexandria, Egypt, using aerosols and water vapor 
data, and the. main sources of air pollution in the region, including heavy traffic, in‐
dustrial, residential, commercial and mixed emissions or biomass burning. In the 
chapter on Spatial Variation, Sources, and Emission Rates of Volatile Organic Com‐