Vehicular emissions contribute significantly to poor air quality in urban areas. An integrated modelling approach is adopted to estimate microscale urban traffic emissions. The modelling framework consists of a traffic microsimulation model, a microscopic emissions model, and two dispersion models. This framework is applied to a traffic network in downtown Toronto to evaluate summer time morning peak traffic emissions during weekdays for carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. The model predicted results are validated against sensor observations with a reasonably good fit. Availability of local estimates of ambient concentration is useful for accurate comparisons of total predicted concentrations with observed concentrations. Both predicted and observed concentrations are significantly smaller than the National Ambient Air Quality Objectives established by Environment Canada. Sensitivity analysis is performed on a set of input parameters and horizontal wind speed is found to be the most influential factor in pollutant dispersion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/33433 |
| Date | 22 November 2012 |
| Creators | Misra, Aarshabh |
| Contributors | Roorda, Matthew J., MacLean, Heather L. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds