Characterization of ozone transport among metropolitan regions

Abstract

The aim of this work is to determine the interaction in terms of ozone transport between two metropolitan regions of São Paulo State: The Metropolitan Region of Campinas (MRC) and Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP), with different characteristics and dimensions. In order to describe the interaction between both regions, 3-D Eulerian photochemical CIT model was used with a new approach for São Paulo regions since most previous studies deal with individual areas considering the contribution of other areas only as boundary conditions. The results from the photochemical simulations showed that the ozone concentration in the MRC is associated to local emissions and the transport of ozone and its precursors from the MRSP, demonstrating the significant impact of a megacity in its neighborhood and the importance of meteorological and topography conditions in the transport of air pollutants from the local source to distant regions.

Ryegrass cv. Lema and guava cv. Paluma biomonitoring suitability for estimating nutritional contamination risks under seasonal climate in Southeastern Brazil

“…The Metropolitan Region of Campinas (MRC), which is composed of 20 municipalities and located in the central-eastern region of São Paulo State, Brazil (Map, Supplementary material), was selected to be subjected to the field experiments because (a) It is the second most important economical center of São Paulo State, which is characterized by different land uses, among cities, highways, industries and extensive agricultural lands mainly devoted to sugarcane, orange and ornamental plantations (CETESB, 2013); (b) These activities emit considerable amounts of air pollutants (Tresmondi and Tomaz, 2004), which may potentially cause nutritional imbalances in crops and native plants growing in the Atlantic Semideciduous Forest remnants that still exist in MRC; (c) In addition to local emissions, the MRC is also affected by sizable emissions from the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP), as a result of the predominantly southerly and southwesterly winds (Boian and Andrade, 2012); (d) Finally, more than three million people live close to these air, water and soil pollution sources in MRC, with consequent loss of ecosystem service quality.…”

“…In fact, the concentration of air pollutants in the MRC is directly influenced by the predominant weather conditions, in addition to the distribution and intensity of pollutant emissions and topography. As a rule, the highest concentrations of pollutants occur, except ozone, from April to September (dry season), due to the higher occurrence of thermal inversions at low atmosphere levels, high percentage of slight winds and low rainfall (Boian and Andrade, 2012;CETESB, 2013).…”

“…Although the yearly wind prevailing direction (Map, supplementary material) in the MRC is southeast, the wind direction changes typically during the day: (a) the predominant wind directions are SSE and SE in early morning and evening; (b) SSE, SE and NE in the morning and (c) NNE, SSE, N, SSW and S in the afternoon. Then, prevailing winds stay between east and south during a single day (Tresmondi and Tomaz, 2004;Boian and Andrade, 2012). This typical daily wind behavior might have dispersed the air pollutants to all exposure sites, causing a uniform plant exposure to air pollutants.…”

“…The industrial production, fuel combustion by light and heavy vehicles, energy production and fertilizer and herbicide applications in agriculture in major urbanized centers (such as metropolitan regions) are currently among the most important sources of anthropogenic nutrient deposition (Lehndorff and Schwark, 2010;Sawidis et al, 2011;Boian and Andrade, 2012). Several pollutants may deposit on natural and agricultural ecosystems and occur at toxic levels in their different compartments, even if they are essential macro and micronutrients (e.g.…”

Development and Evaluation of a Comprehensive Atmospheric Emission Inventory for Air Quality Modeling in the Megacity of Bogotá

“…Several projects that have aimed to construct EIs for the main urban centers in South America have been conducted, such as Bogotá (Colombia), Medellin (Colombia), Santiago (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Sao Paulo (Brazil) [11][12][13][14][15][16], and consolidate a regional inventory combining local and global inventories (such as RETRO and EDGAR) [17,18].…”