Modelling of urban background pollution in Buenos Aires City (Argentina)

This paper presents estimations of horizontal distributions of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) background concentrations in Buenos Aires City. We applied the urban atmospheric dispersion model, DAUMOD, and the ISCST3 model to estimate the contribution of area and point source emissions, respectively. We used an emission inventory with a resolution of 1 km × 1 km, which includes the major sources located in the city (residential; commercial; small industries; road traffic; power plants and aircraft landing, taxi and take off at the Domestic Airport). We compared estimated concentrations with observed values at four locations. Statistical analysis has been carried out to assist in the comparison of model estimations and observations. Estimations were in good agreement with CO and NOx observed data. For both pollutants, estimated hourly average (averaged over a year) background concentration patterns showed a large spatial variability related to the distribution of emissions. At evening, during rush hour, hourly average CO concentrations may reach 4.5 ppm and NOx concentrations 0.42 mg/m3.