Mean and standard error of aerosol particles concentrations of various fractions in the range 10-420 nm on three streets in Madrid during the benchmark and monitoring campaigns undertaken within the project Life+ Photoscaling

Abstract

A step toward better understanding of the possible aerosol release from photocatalytic pavements and evaluation of their environmental impacts was made in the recently concluded project (Castellote, 2019). This study was carried out in the project Life+ Photoscaling. It is aimed at assessment of aerosol concentrations at the street, where a photocatalytic pavement was placed. As the concentrations of aerosol particles in urban air depend on many factors including the air circulation patterns, exhaust and non-exhaust sources they are prone to spatial and temporal variations according to hour of day, day of week and season. Hence, it was very important to choose a reliable benchmark, which would allow to assess the effect of photocatalytic pavement on the air contamination by fine and ultrafine particles regardless of temporal variations. The coating was applied on Jose Antonio de Armona street (A street hereinafter) in Arganzuela district in downtown Madrid. For a primary benchmarking the number particle concentrations were measured on street A before the material application. Furthermore, two neighbouring streets: Bernardino Obregon (B) and Ronda de Valencia (C) were additionally chosen for benchmarking.