A multi-sectoral high-resolution emission refinement system for CFD-GIS based air quality modeling

Details

• Journal Title:
  Urban Climate
• Personal Author:
  Rho, Ju-Hwan ; Lee, Sang-Hyun ; Kim, Hyun Cheol ; Song, Chang-Keun ; Kim, Minjoong J. ; Kim, Jae-Jin
• NOAA Program & Office:
  CISESS (Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies)
• Description:
  Precise urban air quality management requires a high-resolution understanding of complex emission landscapes. This study proposes a multi-sectoral high-resolution emission refinement system for urban-scale modeling and evaluates its impact through comparative numerical experiments. By leveraging building-specific GIS data and road network information, the Clean Air Policy Support System (CAPSS), South Korea's national inventory, was refined to a 20-m resolution and chemically speciated for the Harvard chemistry mechanism to be used in CFD-Chem modeling. The high-resolution emission experiment (HE) successfully resolved localized concentration hotspots intrinsically linked to urban morphology, which were obscured in the 1-km grid-based conventional emission experiment (CE). Specifically, the HE demonstrated superior performance in reproducing the spatial heterogeneity of NO 2 concentration, showing strong agreement with road-adjacent monitoring stations. The difference ratio analysis between the two experiments revealed that NO 2 concentrations in the HE differed by up to 245.6% from the CE in dense urban corridors, effectively mitigating smoothing errors inherent in coarse-grid emissions. Furthermore, the HE proved pivotal in capturing non-linear photochemical reactions; refined roadside NO emissions in the HE actively triggered local ozone titration, resulting in a reduction in ozone concentrations of up to 50.3% along major road networks compared to the CE. While simulation fidelity for CO and PM 2.5 depended on regional background concentrations, the HE provided a more realistic representation of localized chemical destruction and production cycles. This study establishes a robust scientific foundation for precision air quality management, offering a key instrument for designating intensive management zones and establishing effective pedestrian exposure mitigation measures.
• Source:
  Urban Climate, 68, 103030
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2026.103030
• ISSN:
  2212-0955
• Format:
  PDF
• Publisher:
  Elsevier BV
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA24NESX432C0001
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/76522/noaa_76522_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 12.40 MB]
• Collection(s):
  NOAA Cooperative Institutes ; National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service (NESDIS)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:30d03b4648aaaa04c8392a51e5c8a25e9f10b1350c38c6868bcf8edb9ad6bb1dab9c265adc1578425aaa6b7ac8cc1cdceb8c063d252dce84cf2e3ebff690d4fe