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Urban Air Pollution Modeling Without Computers
Citation:
Benarie, M. Urban Air Pollution Modeling Without Computers. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/4-76/055 (NTIS PB262393), 1976.
Description:
This report was the basis for a series of three lectures by the author on urban air pollution modeling, and represents a condensed version of selected topics from a recent monograph by him. The emphasis is on simple but efficient models that often can be used without resorting to high-speed computers. It is indicated that there will be many circumstances under which such simple models will be preferable to more complex ones. Some specific topics included in the discussion are the limits set by atmospheric predictability, forecasting pollution concentrations in real time as for pollution episodes, the simple box model for pollution concentrations, the frequency distribution of concentration values including the log-normal distribution and averaging-time analysis, the relationships between wind speed and concentration, and lastly the critical question of model validation and the need to consider several indices of goodness-of-fit if pitfalls are to be avoided.