Urban air pollution is a growing problem in most cities in developing countries. However there is weak institutional capacity to address the issue in an integrated manner, because (for one reason) there is little in the way of an organized knowledge base or development/application of analytical tools that may help support decision making. Most available tools are complex and data-intensive (multi-purpose) and there is a need for a new generation of tools that can be used in these cities, which takes into account the availability of information and institutional challenges.
Urbanemissions.info has recently published a new discussion paper on the Role of Meteorology on Urban Air Pollution Dispersion which questions how to assess the seasonality in air pollution and any variations in meteorology which affects the measured air pollution levels.
In order to assess the role of meteorology as a diffusing or non-diffusing agent, this paper presents a 20 year analysis. The city of Delhi, India, was considered for pilot analysis. Irrespective of constant emissions over each month, the observed concentrations are 40% to 80% higher in the winter months and 10% to 60% lower in the summer months, when compared to the annual average tracer concentrations (20yr animation).The study will be extended to 10 more cities in 2010.
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