title: Impact of local urban design and traffic restrictions on air quality in a medium-sized town.
abstract: Traffic is the major air pollution source in most urban areas. Nowadays, most of the strategies carried out to improve urban air quality are focused on reducing traffic emissions. Nevertheless, acting locally on urban design can also reduce levels of air pollutants. In this paper, both strategies are studied in several scenarios for a medium-sized town of the Basque Country (Spain). Two main actions are analysed in order to reduce traffic emissions: (1) minor extension ofa pre-existing low emission zone (LEZ); (2) substitution of 10% of passenger cars that are older than 5 years by hybrid and electric vehicles. Regarding local urban design, three alternatives for the development of one side of a street canyon are considered: (1) a park with trees; (2) an open space without obstacles; (3) a building. Two different urban traffic dispersion models are used to calculate the air quality scenarios: PROKAS (Gaussian&box) to analyse the reduction of traffic emissions in the whole urban area and WinMISKAM (CFD) to evaluate specific urban designs. The results show the effectiveness of the analysed actions. On one hand, the definition of a small LEZ, as well as the introduction in 2015 of vehicles with new technology (hybrid and electric), results in minor impacts on PM10 and NO2 ambient concentrations. On the other hand, local urban design can cause significant variation in spatial distribution ofpollutant concentrations emitted inside street canyons. Consequently, urban planners should consider all these aspects when dealing with urban air pollution control.
authors: TECNALIA Environmental Unit, Parque Tecnologico de Bizkaia, Edificio700, 48160 Derio, Bizkaia, Spain. juanangel.acero@tecnalia.com
authors: J A
authors: JA
authors: Acero
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Simon
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Padro
authors: O
authors: O
authors: Santa Coloma
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002958:City Planning; D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide / Q000032:analysis*; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D014186:Transportation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D052638:Particulate Matter; D001335:Vehicle Emissions; D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide