Validation study of urban air dispersion model of Viana do Castelo

Abstract

The City of Viana do Castelo in Portugal has developed an air quality program, which includes prediction of pollutant concentration for NO2, CO, PM10, O3 and C6H6. A range of numerical models were used to produce the concentration maps: the ADMS-Urban model for the pollutants dispersion; the Hills model to calculate air flow and turbulence over complex terrain, including the effects of variable surface roughness; the CORINAIR v.5 to estimate traffic emissions. This paper presents the methodology developed to validate the modelled results. Predicted concentrations were compared against measured concentrations of a chosen pollutant: Carbon Monoxide, CO. Five comparison statistics were calculated for three test points in order to find out the quality of the modelled results. Additionally, a hourly profile of predicted versus measured concentrations was developed.