Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/N007794/1
Air quality in Beijing's haze and urban environment
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor R Doherty, University of Edinburgh, Sch of Geosciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Edinburgh, Sch of Geosciences
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Overall Classification:
- Atmospheric
- ENRIs:
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Boundary Layer Meteorology
- Aerosols
- Air pollution
- Hydroxyl radical chemistry
- Ozone chemistry
- Urban environments
- Land - Atmosphere Interactions
- Atmospheric chemistry
- Tropospheric Processes
- Abstract:
- In Beijing, a megacity of 21 million inhabitants, air pollution levels are amongst the highest in the World, frequently exceeding World Health Organisation air quality guidelines especially for particulate matter (PM). This has major impacts on human health including an increase in premature mortality. NERC has recognised this issue in a recent initiative 'Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in a Chinese Megacity' under the Newton fund. High levels of PM associated with urban and industrial emission sources lead to the formation of pollutant haze in many urban regions, including numerous cities in China. Dense haze reduces sunlight reaching the ground, reducing surface heating and hindering the formation of the urban boundary layer. This traps recently-emitted air pollutants close to the ground by preventing their dispersion and mixing, and thus intensifies human exposure to these pollutants. In addition, reduced sunlight strongly influences atmospheric photochemistry, slowing the removal of many important oxidants such as nitrogen dioxide and ozone. To accurately simulate urban air quality, a comprehensive understanding and representation in models of the interactions between haze, sunlight, heating and air pollution is vital. However, these processes are generally missing from current urban-scale models, which lack chemical detail and neglect haze, and from regional models which lack the spatial resolution to explore the effects of local pollutant sources such as roads and industrial sources. The aim of this project is to further develop and use an urban pollution dispersion and chemistry model ADMS-Urban to explore the impacts of haze on urban air quality. The dense hazes experienced in Beijing and parts of northern China make it an ideal location for studying chemistry-haze-radiation interactions. Furthermore, ADMS-Urban is widely used to forecast air quality in China e.g. for China's Ministry of Science and Technology during Beijing's 2008 Olympics. The project is timely as it allows us to benefit from detailed atmospheric composition and meteorology measurements that are made under the recent NERC- Newton fund investment. First, a reference simulation will be performed with ADMS-Urban over Beijing. The existing gas-phase chemistry will then be updated to the Carbon Bond 05 mechanism that is widely used in regional air quality models worldwide and model simulations will be evaluated against measurements. This will allow ADMS-Urban to realistically simulate the effects of haze on atmospheric photochemistry. A simple treatment of the radiative effects of haze, based on observed aerosol loadings and optical properties, will then be added to the model. This will allow for the effects of haze on surface heating (via attenuation of short and long-wave radiation) and on photochemistry to be directly simulated. These developments will be employed in the extended ADMS-Urban T and Q model, which simulates urban heat island effects on temperature and humidity. The effects of haze on the urban heat island in Beijing and hence on local meteorology and the resultant feedbacks on air quality will then be quantified. The supervisory team represents a strong collaboration of regional and urban-scale modellers with CASE supervisors at Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC) who develop the ADMS-Urban and ADMS T and Q models and academic supervisors at the Universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster. The CASE and Edinburgh supervisors currently collaborate on the NERC 'CURE-Air' project that examines London air quality, and the academic supervisors currently cosupervise one PhD student. Both CERC (which has an office in Beijing) and the Lancaster supervisor have strong existing collaborations with Chinese researchers that facilitates data access. The research will provide new insights into the processes and interactions that determine poor air quality in a heavily polluted urban environment.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/N007794/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Industrial CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £94,782
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - RTSG | Total - Student Stipend |
|---|---|---|
| £17,342 | £11,000 | £66,443 |
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