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Roadside vegetation barrier designs to mitigate near-road air pollution impacts
Citation:
Tong, Z., R. Baldauf, V. Isakov, P. Deshmukh, AND M. Zhang. Roadside vegetation barrier designs to mitigate near-road air pollution impacts. SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier BV, AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, 541:920-927, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory’s Atmospheric Modeling Division (AMAD) conducts research in support of EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. AMAD’s research program is engaged in developing and evaluating predictive atmospheric models on all spatial and temporal scales for forecasting the Nation’s air quality and for assessing changes in air quality and air pollutant exposures, as affected by changes in ecosystem management and regulatory decisions. AMAD is responsible for providing a sound scientific and technical basis for regulatory policies based on air quality models to improve ambient air quality. The models developed by AMAD are being used by EPA, NOAA, and the air pollution community in understanding and forecasting not only the magnitude of the air pollution problem, but also in developing emission control policies and regulations for air quality improvements.
Description:
With increasing evidence that exposures to air pollution near large roadways increases risks of a number of adverse human health effects, identifying methods to reduce these exposures has become a public health priority. Roadside vegetation barriers have shown the potential to reduce near-road air pollution concentrations; however, the characteristics of these barriers needed to ensure pollution reductions are not well understood. Designing vegetation barriers to mitigate near-road air pollution requires a mechanistic understanding of how barrier configurations affect the transport of traffic-related air pollutants. We first evaluated the performance of the Comprehensive Turbulent Aerosol Dynamics and Gas Chemistry (CTAG) model with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to capture the effects of vegetation barriers on near-road air quality, compared against field data. Next, CTAG with LES was employed to explore the effects of six conceptual roadside vegetation/solid barrier configurations on near-road size-resolved particle concentrations, governed by dispersion and deposition. Two potentially viable design options are revealed: a) a wide vegetation barrier with high Leaf Area Density (LAD), and b) vegetation–solid barrier combinations, i.e., planting trees next to a solid barrier. Both designs reduce downwind particle concentrations significantly. The findings presented in the study will assist urban planning and forestry organizations with evaluating different green infrastructure design options.
