2004 UC Proceedings Abstract
 GIS in Air Pollution Research: The Role of Building Surfaces Track: Climate, Weather and Atmosphere Author(s): Stephen Hurlock, Jochen Sstutz Buildings can strongly influence air quality because their surfaces chemically process gases, such as nitrogen oxides, and their volumes affect pollutant concentrations. However, actual surface areas and volumes and their vertical distributions are thus far poorly characterized, limiting our ability to model this important aspect of urban air pollution. This paper presents the first application of GIS to quantify the distribution of surface areas and volumes for use in urban air quality models. GIS data from the city of Santa Monica was used to develop 3D models of selected areas, representative of various urban environments. These models allow calculation of factors such as building surface area, building volume and open air volume. Inclusion of these factors into new and evolving air quality models shows striking results and should lead to higher fidelity calculations of the vertical and temporal distributions of pollutants in urban environments. Stephen Hurlock UCLA Atmospheric Sciences 3426 Lathrop Avenue Simi Valley , CA 93063 US Phone: 8055278865 Fax: 8055275614 E-mail: vlhurloc@earthlink.net Jochen Sstutz UCLA Atmospheric Sciences 405 Hilgard Avenue Room 7127 Math Sciences Bldg Los Angeles , CA 90095-1547 US Phone: 310 825 5364 E-mail: jochen@atmos.ucla.edu |
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