Title: Small scale particulate matter measurements and dispersion modelling in the inner city of Liège, Belgium

Authors: Hendrik Merbitz; François Detalle; Gunnar Ketzler; Christoph Schneider; Fabian Lenartz

Addresses: Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, D-52056 Aachen, Germany ' Institut Scientifique de Service Public (ISSeP), Rue de Chéra 200, B 4000 Liège, Belgium ' Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, D-52056 Aachen, Germany ' Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, D-52056 Aachen, Germany ' Institut Scientifique de Service Public (ISSeP), Rue de Chéra 200, B 4000 Liège, Belgium

Abstract: In the framework of the Interreg-IV 'PM-Lab' project a local-scale exercise was set up to evaluate air pollution in terms of particulate matter (PM) within the centre of Liège, Belgium (pop. 190,000). Sixteen sites distributed on a boulevard and its side streets were selected to determine the spatio-temporal variation of PM concentration in this traffic-dominated area. In addition to the in situ measurements numerical simulations were performed by means of AUSTAL2000. The performance of this Lagrangian dispersion model was checked through some basic qualitative and quantitative comparisons. As the model was able to detect highest PM concentrations both in space and time, test scenarios of emission reductions were also run in order to examine the impact of different traffic related measures.

Keywords: particulate matter; air quality; urban air pollution; atmospheric dispersion modelling; traffic emissions; vehicle emissions; emission reduction; Belgium; numerical simulation; Lagrangian models.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2012.051196

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2012 Vol.50 No.1/2/3/4, pp.234 - 249

Published online: 19 Nov 2014 *

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