Berkowicz, R., Løfstrøm, P., Ketzel, M., Jensen, S.S., Hvidberg, M., 2007. NERI Technical Report No. 633, 65 p.
Summary
The objective of this report is to outline specifications for a new user-friendly Danish highway air pollution model. The <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Danish Road</st1:address></st1:Street> Direc-torate is interested in a tool for environmental impact assessment of air pollution from highways and has initiated this study to outline specifications for such a model. Based on these specifications the Danish Road Directorate will decide whether or not to proceed with the model development.
During 2003-2005, the National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) developed a prototype highway air pollution model. This model is based on the Danish regulatory air pollution model OML which originally was developed for use with stationary air pollution sources. The model has now been adapted for modelling air pollution from motorway traffic. The model parameterisation was successfully validated against data from a three month measurement campaign of NOx and NO2 at different distances from a busy section of a Danish motorway in 2003. Subse-quently, the model was applied for mapping of air quality and human exposure along the motorways in the <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Roskilde</st1:PlaceName> in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Denmark</st1:place></st1:country-region> . At a later stage, the model has also been successfully validated against a Norwegian measurement data set. At present, the model is a prototype model that is not suitable for application outside the research community due to lack of user friendliness.
As part of the present study, a number of application areas were identified where a new Danish highway air pollution model would be useful and provide new information:
Environmental Impact Assessment – to improve information about air pollution as part of legal requirements to assess environmental impacts for new major highway constructions or alteration of existing highways.
EU Ambient Air Quality Limit Values – to be able to assess current or future air quality levels along highways in relation to European Union air quality limit values that have been implemented in Danish legislation.
Systematic Mapping of Air Quality and Human Exposure – to provide overview of the current and future state of air quality and human exposure along a large road network to identify hot spots and areas that merit further analysis and assessment of mitigating measures.
“What-if” Scenario Analysis – to predict future air quality levels under different scenario assumptions e.g. construction of noise barriers, changed traffic volumes and emission factors.
Ranking of Road Investments based on Cost-benefit Analysis – a potential spin-off in a long-term perspective although it is not within the scope of the proposed new highway model at present.
A new Danish highway air pollution model should meet the following overall model criteria:
The model should be operational, user-friendly and GIS based, and organized in a single software package that allows application of existing GIS based data.
Standard input data should be available for quick estimates, but user-defined data should also be an option for more detailed analyses. A standard emission module reflecting Danish conditions should be available, along with e.g. standard data for meteorological data and typi-cal diurnal variation of traffic.
Users are expected to have experience within air pollution modelling and GIS applications. Potential users may be the <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Danish Road</st1:address></st1:Street> Direc-torate, municipalities, consultants and expert institutions.
The model should have an English user-interface and a user manual in English.
The proposed overall model strategy is to integrate the prototype OML highway model and supporting GIS tools and background models into a single GIS based software. This software might be SELMAGIS that is an existing system for air pollution modelling and visualization developed by the German company Lohmeyer and applied in many places in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> . As part of the present project we conducted a workshop with Lohmeyer in October 2006 to discuss the integration of the prototype highway model into SELMAGIS.
It requires a considerable effort of man-power to transfer the current, fragmented system - a prototype air pollution model, combined with ad hoc GIS scripts and manual preparation of data at many levels - into the proposed semi-automatic system that can be applied in a flexible way for a wide range of applications.
The specifications of the model’s input and output are also discussed in further details in this report.
Full report in pdf-format (2.251 kB)
