Urban Air Quality: Sources
and Concentrations
Michael Evan Goodsite
1 , Ole Hertel
2 ,
Matthew Stanley Johnson
3,5 and Nana Rahbek
Jørgensen
4
1 School of Civil, Environmental and
Mining Engineering, The Australian
School of Petroleum, The University of Adelaide,
Adelaide, SA, Australia
2 Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus
University, Roskilde, Denmark
3 Department of Chemistry, University of
Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
4 Faculty of Engineering, University
of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark
5 Airlabs, Copenhagen, Denmark
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject and Its Importance
Introduction
Origins of Air Quality: Sources and Formation of
Urban Air Pollution
Air Quality and Health Effects
Urban Air Pollution Concentrations in General
Urban Air Quality Concentrations and Indices
Sources in Urban Airsheds
Impact of Physical Parameters: Geography,
Topography, and Meteorology
Impact of Geography
Impact of Topography
Impact of Meteorology
Pollutant Dispersion in Urban Streets
Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution in Urban Areas
The Impact of Particle Pollution
Particle Mass Concentrations
Particle Number Concentrations
Air Quality Measurement Locations
Natural Sources
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and
Urban Air Quality
Sources and Emissions of PAHs
Sampling Artifacts in Measuring PAHs
Long-Range Transport of PAH
Trace Elements to Include Heavy Metals in Urban
Areas
Heavy Metals in the Urban Atmosphere
Trace Elements in the Urban Atmosphere
Conclusions
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Aerodynamic diameter Particles in ambient air
have irregular shapes. The aerodynamic diameter is the idealized spherical diameter with the
same aerodynamic behavior as the irregular
real-world particle.
Air pollutants Anything in the air around us,
man-made or natural, which contaminates the
natural steady state of and constituents in the air
as required for life categorized as gaseous or
particulate pollutants.
Air pollution The state of pollutants contaminating the air/atmosphere around us.
Air quality index (AQI) A numerical index for
air pollution, for example, in the UK, it is from
1 to 10 and related to the air quality bands of
“low,” “moderate,” “high,” or “very high”
(https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/air-pollution/daqi?vi
ew=more-info, accessed May 1st, 2019).
Another example is the AQI from the US EPA
with a scale from 0 “good” to 500 “hazardous”
https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=aqibasics.
aqi (accessed May 1st, 2019).
Air quality A subjective, often locally or nationally, determined state of the amount of pollutants in the air around us. The best air quality is
when there are very low pollutant levels.
Ambient air Air outside of structures at any
given time. The “outdoor air” as opposed to
the “air indoors.”
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
M. E. Goodsite et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Sources, Statistics and Health Effects,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0596-7_321
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_321-3
193
and Concentrations
Michael Evan Goodsite
1 , Ole Hertel
2 ,
Matthew Stanley Johnson
3,5 and Nana Rahbek
Jørgensen
4
1 School of Civil, Environmental and
Mining Engineering, The Australian
School of Petroleum, The University of Adelaide,
Adelaide, SA, Australia
2 Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus
University, Roskilde, Denmark
3 Department of Chemistry, University of
Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
4 Faculty of Engineering, University
of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark
5 Airlabs, Copenhagen, Denmark
Article Outline
Glossary
Definition of the Subject and Its Importance
Introduction
Origins of Air Quality: Sources and Formation of
Urban Air Pollution
Air Quality and Health Effects
Urban Air Pollution Concentrations in General
Urban Air Quality Concentrations and Indices
Sources in Urban Airsheds
Impact of Physical Parameters: Geography,
Topography, and Meteorology
Impact of Geography
Impact of Topography
Impact of Meteorology
Pollutant Dispersion in Urban Streets
Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution in Urban Areas
The Impact of Particle Pollution
Particle Mass Concentrations
Particle Number Concentrations
Air Quality Measurement Locations
Natural Sources
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and
Urban Air Quality
Sources and Emissions of PAHs
Sampling Artifacts in Measuring PAHs
Long-Range Transport of PAH
Trace Elements to Include Heavy Metals in Urban
Areas
Heavy Metals in the Urban Atmosphere
Trace Elements in the Urban Atmosphere
Conclusions
Future Directions
Bibliography
Glossary
Aerodynamic diameter Particles in ambient air
have irregular shapes. The aerodynamic diameter is the idealized spherical diameter with the
same aerodynamic behavior as the irregular
real-world particle.
Air pollutants Anything in the air around us,
man-made or natural, which contaminates the
natural steady state of and constituents in the air
as required for life categorized as gaseous or
particulate pollutants.
Air pollution The state of pollutants contaminating the air/atmosphere around us.
Air quality index (AQI) A numerical index for
air pollution, for example, in the UK, it is from
1 to 10 and related to the air quality bands of
“low,” “moderate,” “high,” or “very high”
(https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/air-pollution/daqi?vi
ew=more-info, accessed May 1st, 2019).
Another example is the AQI from the US EPA
with a scale from 0 “good” to 500 “hazardous”
https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=aqibasics.
aqi (accessed May 1st, 2019).
Air quality A subjective, often locally or nationally, determined state of the amount of pollutants in the air around us. The best air quality is
when there are very low pollutant levels.
Ambient air Air outside of structures at any
given time. The “outdoor air” as opposed to
the “air indoors.”
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
M. E. Goodsite et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Sources, Statistics and Health Effects,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0596-7_321
Originally published in
R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC,
part of Springer Nature 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_321-3
193