Biomagnetic monitoring as a validation tool for local air quality models: A case study for an urban street canyon

- First time air quality model validation by means of biomagnetic monitoring
- Significant correlations are obtained between measured and modeled results.
- ENVI-met model performance weakened with increasing distance to the ring road.
- Biomagnetic monitoring seems suitable for local-scale air quality model validation.

Biomagnetic monitoring of tree leaf deposited particles has proven to be a good indicator of the ambient particulate concentration. The objective of this study is to apply this method to validate a local-scale air quality model (ENVI-met), using 96 tree crown sampling locations in a typical urban street canyon. To the best of our knowledge, the application of biomagnetic monitoring for the validation of pollutant dispersion modeling is hereby presented for the first time. Quantitative ENVI-met validation showed significant correlations between modeled and measured results throughout the entire in-leaf period. ENVI-met performed much better at the first half of the street canyon close to the ring road (r = 0.58-0.79, RMSE = 44-49%), compared to second part (r = 0.58-0.64, RMSE = 74-102%). The spatial model behavior was evaluated by testing effects of height, azimuthal position, tree position and distance from the main pollution source on the obtained model results and magnetic measurements. Our results demonstrate that biomagnetic monitoring seems to be a valuable method to evaluate the performance of air quality models. Due to the high spatial and temporal resolution of this technique, biomagnetic monitoring can be applied anywhere in the city (where urban green is present) to evaluate model performance at different spatial scales.