Chapter 24
Impact of Urban Land Use
and Anthropogenic Heat on Air Quality
in Urban Environments
Shuzhan Ren, Craig Stroud, Stephane Belair, Sylvie Leroyer,
Michael Moran, Junhua Zhang, Ayodeji Akingunola and Paul Makar
Abstract In the GEM-MACH URBAN project, Environment and Climate
Change Canada (ECCC) high-resolution (2.5-km) Global Environment MultiscaleModelling Air-quality and Chemistry (GEM-MACH) model and the Town Energy
Balance Model (TEB) are being employed to examine the impact of the urban surface exchange scheme on the transport and diffusion of air pollutants in large cities
such as Toronto, New York and Detroit. Simulation results show that while the TEB
scheme causes O3 mixing ratios to increase, it leads to a decrease of CO and NOx
mixing ratios and air quality health index (AQHI) values in the urban centers in both
summer (July) and winter (January) months. The TEB scheme also has a big impact
on the vertical diffusion coefficient, atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) height and
air temperature. Comparisons against ECCC’s meteorological and air quality (AQ)
S. Ren (B) · C. Stroud · M. Moran · J. Zhang · A. Akingunola · P. Makar
Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate
Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
e-mail: shuzhan.ren@canada.ca
C. Stroud
e-mail: craig.stroud@canada.ca
M. Moran
e-mail: mike.moran@canada.ca
J. Zhang
e-mail: junhua.zhang@canada.ca
A. Akingunola
e-mail: ayodeji.akingunola@canada.ca
P. Makar
e-mail: paul.makar@canada.ca
S. Belair · S. Leroyer
Meteorological Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate
Change Canada, Dorval, QC, Canada
e-mail: stephane.belair@canada.ca
S. Leroyer
e-mail: sylvie.leroyer@canada.ca
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_24
153
Impact of Urban Land Use
and Anthropogenic Heat on Air Quality
in Urban Environments
Shuzhan Ren, Craig Stroud, Stephane Belair, Sylvie Leroyer,
Michael Moran, Junhua Zhang, Ayodeji Akingunola and Paul Makar
Abstract In the GEM-MACH URBAN project, Environment and Climate
Change Canada (ECCC) high-resolution (2.5-km) Global Environment MultiscaleModelling Air-quality and Chemistry (GEM-MACH) model and the Town Energy
Balance Model (TEB) are being employed to examine the impact of the urban surface exchange scheme on the transport and diffusion of air pollutants in large cities
such as Toronto, New York and Detroit. Simulation results show that while the TEB
scheme causes O3 mixing ratios to increase, it leads to a decrease of CO and NOx
mixing ratios and air quality health index (AQHI) values in the urban centers in both
summer (July) and winter (January) months. The TEB scheme also has a big impact
on the vertical diffusion coefficient, atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) height and
air temperature. Comparisons against ECCC’s meteorological and air quality (AQ)
S. Ren (B) · C. Stroud · M. Moran · J. Zhang · A. Akingunola · P. Makar
Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate
Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
e-mail: shuzhan.ren@canada.ca
C. Stroud
e-mail: craig.stroud@canada.ca
M. Moran
e-mail: mike.moran@canada.ca
J. Zhang
e-mail: junhua.zhang@canada.ca
A. Akingunola
e-mail: ayodeji.akingunola@canada.ca
P. Makar
e-mail: paul.makar@canada.ca
S. Belair · S. Leroyer
Meteorological Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate
Change Canada, Dorval, QC, Canada
e-mail: stephane.belair@canada.ca
S. Leroyer
e-mail: sylvie.leroyer@canada.ca
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_24
153