Simulating effects in terms of air pollution and climate change (Work Package 6)
Research message
Work Package 6 will quantify the impacts of the infrastructural PCSs with respect to air pollutants levels and their linkages to climate changes in the urban environment, to evaluate their efficacy both in the present days and in the future (2050).
Main aims
The main aims of this research are:
- To quantify the effects of the infrastructural Passive Control Systems (PCSs) in terms of air pollutants levels and climate change using the most up-to-date numerical approach.
- To evaluate the efficacy of the PCS intervention in target cities in the mid/long term.
- To support numerical simulations requirements to assist the other WPs requirement (e.g. WP3 and WP4).
Main outcomes
WP6 provides a baseline assessment of air quality in the target cities pre-infrastructural PCSs solutions, leading to high resolution maps of major pollutants, climatic variables and Urban Heat Island (UHI) levels. High resolution maps will serve as a reference to evaluate the effectiveness of the infrastructural changes at both neighbourhood and city scales for each target city. The efficacy of the infrastructural PCSs will also be simulated for future climatic scenarios to investigate the suitability of the applied solutions to climate changes expected/predicted in each target city. The analysis of those results will allow to derive guidelines for the implementation of PCS solutions in other EU cities.
Main outputs
- A detailed report for the assessment of air quality and UHI in EU selected cities pre-infrastructural solutions, which includes pollutants and greenhouse gases high resolution maps, to supply a reference scenario against which evaluate changes.
- A detailed report based on CFD simulations performed at neighbourhood scale of the effects on local air pollutions due to PCSs in the target cities.
- A detailed report based on numerical simulations performed at urban level of the effects of some PCS interventions on mitigating the UHI in the target cities.
- A detailed report on local meteorological conditions scenarios for present days and in the future (2050), with and without the proposed PCSs in the target cities.
- A detailed report of the effects of PCSs on air quality in the future (2050) in the target cities, and how PCSs implementation would be effective in other EU cities.
Practical use
WP6 will provide operational – ready-to-use – solution scenarios with the introduction of infrastructural PCSs in the urban environment of European-like cities to control and mitigate air pollutions levels and the urban heat island effect. Solutions are expected to be robust and effective both currently and in the future.