An urban scale application and validation of the CALPUFF model

Abstract

The paper presents selected results of an urban scale analysis of air quality. Calculations are carried out for the Warsaw area, basing on the emission and meteorological dataset for the year 2012. The regional scale CALMET/CALPUFF modeling system has been used to link the emission data with the resulting concentration maps of the selected polluting substances that characterize the urban atmospheric environment: PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SO2, CO, C6H6. The emission field encompasses the basic activities in an urban area: the energy sector, industry, traffic and the municipal sector. The basic simulation results present the annual mean concentrations of pollutants at the receptor points and indicate the areas where air quality limits are exceeded. The presentation is focused on the assessment of the model performance. The calculated annual mean concentrations are verified against the measurement data at 5 monitoring stations. Moreover, for selected modeling periods (January 2012), performance estimates are also presented for 1-h concentration results. The good performance of the model is shown for the annual mean predictions, while the temporal agreement of the short-term, 1-h average concentrations is much less accurate, especially for the low-wind meteorological episodes.