Effects of sea-land breeze on air pollutant dispersion in street networks with different distances from coast using WRF-CFD coupling method

Abstract

A WRF-CFD coupled model with high-temporal resolution is employed to investigate pollutant dispersions during a sea-land breeze (SLB) day in an identical building block configuration at three locations in Shanghai, China, and the blocks are set at the coast (L1), downtown (L2) and inland (L3). The results show that the localized wind speed drops below 1 m/s during the sea-land-breeze collision period (SLBCP), which leads to pollutant accumulation. The closer the block is to the coast, the earlier occurrence and longer duration of SLBCP, and Blocks L1, L2, and L3 experience SLBCPs during the morning peak traffic period (MPTP), low-traffic-volume period (at midday), and evening peak traffic period (EPTP), with durations of 2.5 h, 2 h, and 1 h, respectively. Due to the low wind speeds of both land breezes and sea breezes during the overlap of MPTP and SLBCP, the pollutant concentration in Block L1 is significantly elevated, and the peak concentration is two times higher than that in the non-coastal blocks (L2 and L3). Block L2 shows a peak concentration during the midday low-traffic-volume period, while no evident peak concentration is found in L3 in EPTP. The mean concentrations in Blocks L1, L2, and L3 during EPTP are 72 %, 57 %, and 31 % lower than those during MPTP, respectively. This suggests that SLB has significantly different effects on wind fields and pollutant dispersion in building blocks with different distances from the coast and can provide reference data for transport planning in coastal cities.