Nowak, D.J and Civerolo, K.L. and Rao, S.T. and Sistla, G. and Luley, C.J. and Crane, D. (2000) A modeling study of the impact of urban trees on ozone. Atmospheric Environment , 34 (10). pp. 1601-1613.
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Abstract
The paper details the findings of a study that investigated the cumulative and interactive effects of increased urban tree cover on urban and regional ozone concentrations in the NE USA. The study used meteorological, emission, and air quality models and field data on urban vegetation to assess the impacts of altered meteorology, dry deposition, biogenic VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions and anthropogenic emissions due to changes in urban tree cover for the period 13-15 July 1995. The purpose of the simulations was to compare model outputs against model inputs as related to urban tree cover. The study domain encompassed an area containing many major urban areas of the eastern seaboard from from Washington, DC to central Massachusetts (USA); urban tree characteristics were measured in 3 of these - New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The modelling showed that urban trees generally reduce ozone concentrations in cities, but tend to increase average ozone concentrations in the overall modelling domain. During the daytime, average ozone reductions in urban areas (1 ppb) were greater than the average ozone increase (0.26 ppb) for the model domain. Interactions of the effects of trees on meteorology, dry deposition, VOC emissions, and anthropogenic emissions demonstrate that trees can cause changes in dry deposition and meteorology, particularly air temperatures, wind fields, and boundary layer heights, which in turn affect ozone concentrations. Changes in urban tree species composition had no detectable effect on ozone concentrations. Increasing urban tree cover from 20 to 40% led to an average decrease in hourly ozone concentrations in urban areas during daylight hours of 1 ppb (2.4%) with a peak decrease of 2.4 ppb (4.1%). However, nighttime (20.00-01.00 h) ozone concentrations increased due to reduced wind speeds and loss of NOx scavenging of ozone from increased deposition of NOx. Overall, 8-h average ozone concentration in urban areas dropped by 0.5 ppb (1%) throughout the day.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Author Affiliation: | USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA. |
| Subjects: | Environmental Science |
| Divisions: | General |
| Depositing User: | Mr B Krishnamurthy |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Oct 2010 04:19 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Oct 2010 04:19 |
| Official URL: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(99)00394-5 |
| URI: | http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/375 |
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