Title of Example
  The use of the AQM system AirQUIS in Oslo

Example
   

The use of AirQUIS in Oslo

In Oslo and several other Norwegian cities, AirQUIS is used to model air quality on the urban scale, and to perform Air Quality Management tasks, such as studying effectes of abatement measures. AirQUIS combines measurement and other available data with modeling. This results in modeled data for pollution concentration, distribution and population exposure. In addition the user has the possibility to apply statistical tools and to present results in GIS. Furthermore, it is possible to calculate the effects of abatement measures.

In Oslo, the system is used both for daily forecasts of air quality (during winter) and in abatement and city planning.

AirQUIS

The meteorological model:

  1. In general: wind field model MATHEW - calculates 3D-hourly wind fields from measurements of wind direction, wind speed, temperature, temperature gradient, and a topography field
  2. For forecasting: meteorological model MM5 (from the Norwegian meteorological institute) with a grid point distance of 1 km - the meteorological forecast from MM5 gives a detailed description of the local variations in the meteorological data for Oslo.

The emission model:

This is integrated in the AirQUIS system. Calculates hourly emission from the different sources:

Area sources:

· Uses emission factors, time variations and temperature variation to calculate hourly emissions from annual consumption of fossil fuels

Line sources:

· Uses road and traffic data, road and traffic classification, emission factors, traffic discrepancies, and time variations

Point sources:

· Uses physical stack data, process consumption or emission data, emission factors, and time variations

The dispersion model

For dispersion a 3D Eulerian/Lagrangian model is used (EPISODE). The model includes both an industrial accident model and a complete dispersion model. In Oslo, mainly the EPISODE model is used. The model system includes a grid model (usually giving concentrations in km2 grids in the model area), and it also included sub-grid scale models for point source dispersion and dispersion from streets and roads. EPISODE calculates hourly and half hourly concentrations of pollutants in fields, points and along roads. Receptor points for calculations can be chosen freely, either as center points of grids, or any other point. The results may also be used to calculate long-term-, average- max and percentile concentrations.

The exposure model

This model combines the results for pollution concentrations with population distribution. It is the possible to calculate the number of people exposed to concentrations above air quality guidelines/threshold values both in field, in building points and totally.

Further Reading

http://www.nilu.no/airquis/

Examples: results from AirQUIS (in GIS)

1. Human exposure for PM10 in Oslo in 2000


2. City planning: map of max. concentrations of NO2 in 2001



3. Forecasting PM10 in Oslo

4. Map over point and line sources

Last Updated

 

13th January 2005
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