Application of a short term air quality action plan in Madrid (Spain) under a high-pollution episode - Part I: Diagnostic and analysis from observations

Borge, Rafael; Artı́ñano, Begoña; Yagüe, Carlos; Gómez-Moreno, Francisco J.; Saiz‐Lopez, Alfonso; Sastre, Mariano; Narros, Adolfo; García-Nieto, David; Benavent, Nuria; Maqueda, Gregorio; Barreiro, Marcos; Andrés, Juan Manuel de; Cristóbal, Ángeles

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.149

Cited by 50 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…NO, CO and to a lesser extent UFP (mainly in the winter period, Brines et al, 2015) are good tracers of primary emissions from combustion sources such as road traffic and residential heating that are typically found at metropolitan urban areas such as the Madrid one. They reach their highest levels during the occurrence of the classical urban high-pollution episodes in Madrid (Artíñano et al, 2004;Gómez-Moreno et al, 2011;Salvador et al, 2012;Borge et al, 2018). This type of events is associated to stationary high pressure systems that favor the accumulation of high levels of particles and gaseous pollutants from local sources, mainly in the winter period.…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic effect of the occurrence of African dust outbreaks on atmospheric pollutant levels in the Madrid metropolitan area

Salvador

Molero

Fernández

et al. 2019

Atmospheric Research

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The occurrence of African dust outbreaks over specific areas of the Mediterranean basin has been associated with increases in the PM 10 concentration levels and also in the mortality rates. Different hypothesis have been proposed in the last years to explain the processes by which African dust storms generates negative health effect over urban areas in southern Europe but are still not clear. Some authors have suggested the existence of an interaction between air pollutants from local sources and the occurrence of African dust outbreaks, with a consequent increase in the risk of mortality due to exposure to these anthropogenic emissions. This study sought to identify such a synergistic effect in the Madrid metropolitan area. To this end, an assessment of the influence of African dust on air quality levels, the vertical structure of the atmosphere over Madrid and daily mortality was carried out. Our results indicated that African dust caused a reduction of the mixing layer height and the surface wind speed, by reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground. These facts favored the accumulation of air pollutants emissions from local anthropogenic sources. Moreover, when the dust contribution to PM 10 levels exceeded a threshold value (8 μg/m 3), particulate matter mass (PM 10 , PM 2.5) and number (ultra-fine particles) concentration as well as levels of gaseous air pollutants (CO, NO and NO 2) registered at urban-background and urban-traffic monitoring sites, increased with statistical significance. In these conditions, it was found a statistically significant increase in risk of daily mortality in the PM 10 exposure. Hence, ambient air in Madrid was more toxic during African dust events of increasing intensity due to this synergistic effect. Because it can be envisaged that the frequency, duration and intensity of dust storms will increase in the north of Africa due to climate change, it will be a priority to put forward and assess proposals to mitigate the adverse effects on health, focused on the reduction of air pollutant emissions from local sources, as well as proposals regarding the adaptation of the population in urban areas across the Mediterranean basin.

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Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic effect of the occurrence of African dust outbreaks on atmospheric pollutant levels in the Madrid metropolitan area

Salvador

Molero

Fernández

et al. 2019

Atmospheric Research

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“…They showed that Madrid required a reduction in NO x emissions in order to meet the NO 2 European standards, which was the main motivation behind the implementation of MC. Different models were used to simulate and evaluate a short-term action plan to mitigate pollution emissions [58,59]. More recently, after the application of MC, Lebrusán and Toutouh [12] evaluated the effectiveness of this measure in reducing pollution inside the LEZ.…”

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confidence: 99%

Using Smart City Tools to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Low Emissions Zone in Spain: Madrid Central

Lebrusán¹,

Toutouh

2020

Smart Cities

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Population concentration in cities brings new risks as an increase in pollution, which causes urban health problems. In order to address this problem, traffic reduction measures are being implemented as pedestrianization areas; they are the definition of Low Emissions Zones (LEZs). When the effectiveness of these types of measures is in doubt, smart city tools provide data that can be used to scientifically asses their impact. This article analyzes the situation of Madrid Central (Spain), a LEZ subject to controversy. We apply statistical and regression analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of this measure to reduce air pollution and outdoor noise. According to the results, this LEZ was able to significantly reduce NO 2 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 concentration locally, having the same positive impact in the rest of the city. In terms of noise, this measure was able to mitigate background noise levels generated by road traffic.

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“…The site is close to a highly vegetated area to the W, being also close enough to the small urban areas of San Lorenzo de El Escorial to the NW and El Escorial to the E-SE. In addition, it is relatively close to the large metropolitan area of Madrid, where concern regarding high pollution levels has increased in the last years (Borge et al, 2016(Borge et al, , 2018. The diffusivity of pollutants is highly affected by the presence of down-basin winds in the city and surrounding areas blowing from the NE (Plaza et al, 1997), which develop from converging nocturnal flows at the centre of the basin.…”

Section: Site: La Herreríamentioning

confidence: 99%

From weak to intense downslope winds: origin, interaction with boundary-layer turbulence and impact on CO<sub>2</sub> variability

et al. 2019

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Abstract. The interconnection of local downslope flows of different intensities with the turbulent characteristics and thermal structure of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is investigated through observations. Measurements are carried out in a relatively flat area 2 km away from the steep slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama (central Iberian Peninsula). A total of 40 thermally driven downslope events are selected from an observational database spanning the summer 2017 period by using an objective and systematic algorithm that accounts for a weak synoptic forcing and local downslope wind direction. We subsequently classify the downslope events into weak, moderate and intense categories, according to their maximum 6 m wind speed. This classification enables us to contrast their main differences regarding the driving mechanisms, associated ABL turbulence and thermal structure, and the major dynamical characteristics. We find that the strongest downslope flows (U > 3.5 m s−1) develop when soil moisture is low ( < 0.07 m3 m−3) and the synoptic wind not so weak (3.5 m s−1 < V850 < 6 m s−1) and roughly parallel to the direction of the downslope flow. The latter adds an important dynamical input, which induces an early flow advection from the nearby steep slope, when the local thermal profile is not stable yet. Consequently, turbulence driven by the bulk shear increases up to friction velocity (u*) ≃ 1 m s−1, preventing the development of the surface-based thermal inversion and giving rise to the so-called weakly stable boundary layer. On the contrary, when the dynamical input is absent, buoyancy acceleration drives the formation of a katabatic flow, which is weak (U < 1.5 m s−1) and generally manifested in the form of a shallow jet below 3 m. The relative flatness of the area favours the formation of very stable boundary layers marked by very weak turbulence (u* < 0.1 m s−1). In between, moderate downslope flows show intermediate characteristics, depending on the strength of the dynamical input and the occasional interaction with down-basin winds. On the other hand, by inspecting individual weak and intense events, we further explore the impact of downslope flows on CO2 variability. By relating the dynamics of the distinct turbulent regimes to the CO2 budget, we are able to estimate the contribution of the different terms. For the intense event, indeed, we infer a horizontal transport of 67 ppm in 3 h driven by the strong downslope advection.

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Application of a short term air quality action plan in Madrid (Spain) under a high-pollution episode - Part I: Diagnostic and analysis from observations

Cited by 50 publications

References 31 publications

Synergistic effect of the occurrence of African dust outbreaks on atmospheric pollutant levels in the Madrid metropolitan area

Synergistic effect of the occurrence of African dust outbreaks on atmospheric pollutant levels in the Madrid metropolitan area

Using Smart City Tools to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Low Emissions Zone in Spain: Madrid Central

From weak to intense downslope winds: origin, interaction with boundary-layer turbulence and impact on CO<sub>2</sub> variability

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Application of a short term air quality action plan in Madrid (Spain) under a high-pollution episode - Part I: Diagnostic and analysis from observations

Cited by 50 publications

References 31 publications

Synergistic effect of the occurrence of African dust outbreaks on atmospheric pollutant levels in the Madrid metropolitan area

Synergistic effect of the occurrence of African dust outbreaks on atmospheric pollutant levels in the Madrid metropolitan area

Using Smart City Tools to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Low Emissions Zone in Spain: Madrid Central

From weak to intense downslope winds: origin, interaction with boundary-layer turbulence and impact on CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; variability

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From weak to intense downslope winds: origin, interaction with boundary-layer turbulence and impact on CO<sub>2</sub> variability