Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study
Climate sensitive urban planning involves the implementation of green infrastructure as one measure to mitigate excessive heat in urban areas. Depending on thermal conditions, certain trees tend to emit more biogenic volatile organic compounds, which act as precursors for ozone formation, thus hampe...
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doaj-7bd461a867ab4fb0915dee4ab924559b2020-11-24T20:43:27ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332019-03-0110315410.3390/atmos10030154atmos10030154Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling StudyHelge Simon0Joachim Fallmann1Tim Kropp2Holger Tost3Michael Bruse4Department of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, GermanyInstitute of Atmospheric Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, GermanyDepartment of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, GermanyInstitute of Atmospheric Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, GermanyDepartment of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, GermanyClimate sensitive urban planning involves the implementation of green infrastructure as one measure to mitigate excessive heat in urban areas. Depending on thermal conditions, certain trees tend to emit more biogenic volatile organic compounds, which act as precursors for ozone formation, thus hampering air quality. Combining a theoretical approach from a box model analysis and microscale modeling from the microclimate model ENVI-met, we analyze this relationship for a selected region in Germany and provide the link to air quality prediction and climate sensitive urban planning. A box model study was conducted, indicating higher ozone levels with higher isoprene concentration, especially in NO-saturated atmospheres. ENVI-met sensitivity studies showed that different urban layouts strongly determine local isoprene emissions of vegetation, with leaf temperature, rather than photosynthetic active radiation, being the dominant factor. The impact of isoprene emission on the ozone in complex urban environments was simulated for an urban area for a hot summer day with and without isoprene. A large isoprene-induced relative ozone increase was found over the whole model area. On selected hot spots we find a clear relationship between urban layout, proximity to NOx emitters, tree-species-dependent isoprene emission capacity, and increases in ozone concentration, rising up to 500% locally.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/10/3/154ENVI-metBVOCbox-modelisopreneurban planningair qualityNOxgreen infrastructure |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Helge Simon Joachim Fallmann Tim Kropp Holger Tost Michael Bruse |
spellingShingle |
Helge Simon Joachim Fallmann Tim Kropp Holger Tost Michael Bruse Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study Atmosphere ENVI-met BVOC box-model isoprene urban planning air quality NOx green infrastructure |
author_facet |
Helge Simon Joachim Fallmann Tim Kropp Holger Tost Michael Bruse |
author_sort |
Helge Simon |
title |
Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study |
title_short |
Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study |
title_full |
Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study |
title_fullStr |
Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study |
title_sort |
urban trees and their impact on local ozone concentration—a microclimate modeling study |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Atmosphere |
issn |
2073-4433 |
publishDate |
2019-03-01 |
description |
Climate sensitive urban planning involves the implementation of green infrastructure as one measure to mitigate excessive heat in urban areas. Depending on thermal conditions, certain trees tend to emit more biogenic volatile organic compounds, which act as precursors for ozone formation, thus hampering air quality. Combining a theoretical approach from a box model analysis and microscale modeling from the microclimate model ENVI-met, we analyze this relationship for a selected region in Germany and provide the link to air quality prediction and climate sensitive urban planning. A box model study was conducted, indicating higher ozone levels with higher isoprene concentration, especially in NO-saturated atmospheres. ENVI-met sensitivity studies showed that different urban layouts strongly determine local isoprene emissions of vegetation, with leaf temperature, rather than photosynthetic active radiation, being the dominant factor. The impact of isoprene emission on the ozone in complex urban environments was simulated for an urban area for a hot summer day with and without isoprene. A large isoprene-induced relative ozone increase was found over the whole model area. On selected hot spots we find a clear relationship between urban layout, proximity to NOx emitters, tree-species-dependent isoprene emission capacity, and increases in ozone concentration, rising up to 500% locally. |
topic |
ENVI-met BVOC box-model isoprene urban planning air quality NOx green infrastructure |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/10/3/154 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT helgesimon urbantreesandtheirimpactonlocalozoneconcentrationamicroclimatemodelingstudy AT joachimfallmann urbantreesandtheirimpactonlocalozoneconcentrationamicroclimatemodelingstudy AT timkropp urbantreesandtheirimpactonlocalozoneconcentrationamicroclimatemodelingstudy AT holgertost urbantreesandtheirimpactonlocalozoneconcentrationamicroclimatemodelingstudy AT michaelbruse urbantreesandtheirimpactonlocalozoneconcentrationamicroclimatemodelingstudy |
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