Urban Airshed Monitoring: New
Tools for Aerosol Characterization at Meso-Scale Spatial Resolution
The design and development
of next generation of “Smart Cities” and “Green Buildings” must be
made in conjunction with the knowledge of the interaction of air
pollution with the personal environment. In urban areas, the broad
range of sources with varying emission profiles combined with the
local meteorology results in a complex, heterogeneous distribution
of pollutants. The existing discrete ground-based monitoring sites
do not capture the temporal and spatial variations in pollutant
concentrations. Advanced numerical modeling tools can provide the
capability to predict and track the fate and transport of particles
in an urban airshed. However, these simulations are complicated as
they require the solution of integrated fluid and chemical
processes. Wide-spread use of these models is only possible after
thorough validation with data from full-scale experiments and
real-world meteorological conditions. Such data can only be obtained
from measurements in a real urban environment. Here, we propose to
develop a compact, instrumented unmanned aerial vehicle for realtime
air quality characterization in urban airsheds. This innovative
system will enable unprecedented real-time monitoring that will help
in future development and implementation of i-EQS for urban
buildings.
PhD Student: Meilu He
Investigators: Suresh
Dhaniyala, Pier
Marzocca
Sponsor: US EPA,
COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION (CARTI) SYR
COE