Urban air pollution is characterized by strong spatial gradients
produced by the presence of heavily trafficked streets. Given the
negative health effects of air pollution, decision makers are
implementing policies to reduce air pollution by modifying traffic
flows near activity patterns of vulnerable populations. However, to our
knowledge, there is quite a lack of appropriate decision tools to
support such modifications at neighborhood to street levels. Measured
horizontal and vertical distributions of traffic air pollutants can help
understanding the variation of concentrations at increasing distances
from emitting roads. Yet, models are still necessary to estimate the
contribution of local traffic to measured concentrations.
The main objective of this work is to investigate the contribution of
local traffic to black carbon horizontal and vertical profiles based on
measurements and model simulations. We will discuss the degree of
influence of the different streets on black carbon measured profiles in
Barcelona
