Simple modelling approaches to assess the impact of traffic air pollution: Cordoba case study

Abstract

From 1991 to 1999, there were significant commitments to environmental protection in Argentina. During this period, several important cities of the country, such as Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Mendoza, Bahia Blanca, and Ushuaia, began air quality monitoring programmes. Among these cities, we have taken Cordoba as a case study because of the existence of a continuous monitoring campaign that collected a great amount of high quality data during 1995 and 1996. This campaign has allowed us to characterise an important sector of the city. Lack of data along the prevailing wind direction with respect to downtown is the major shortcoming. Other serious difficulties are the absence of emission inventories and a well characterised fleet. In this work, we present some simple modelling approaches that have proved to be useful for urban planning. Some remarks about the particular situation of Cordoba are presented, together with a general description of the situation in the country.