Dispersion of pollutants over land–water–land interface: Study using CALPUFF model

Abstract

The CALMET/CALPUFF modeling system is used to study atmospheric dispersion of pollutant over land–water–land interface. It is shown that the default scheme used by CALMET/CALPUFF to handle inhomogeneous surfaces does not take care of the different turbulence characteristics over such surfaces. An alternative method is suggested to incorporate different turbulent characteristics over inhomogeneous surfaces by using the appropriate atmospheric stability category over different surfaces. The results show that the presence of water body can increase the ground level concentration by a factor of up to 50 for the width of water body varying from 1 km to 5 km. It is also shown that the effect of water body on the ground level concentration decreases as the distance from the water body increases. The present study showed that for land–water interface, the realistic specification of turbulence characteristics over inhomogeneous surfaces significantly changes the estimation of ground level concentration as compared to the default scheme available in the CALMET/CALPUFF modeling system and is expected to give realistic results.