Potential Green Infrastructure Impacts on air quality in Different Local Climates Zones of Brindisi, Italy.
Picone, Natasha (2023)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023110628723
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023110628723
Tiivistelmä
Half the world's population lives in cities, and over 80 % is exposed to poor air quality. Europe has declared air pollution as the single most significant environmental health risk, as it generates premature death and affects the quality of life. Finally, Italy has a 71 % of the urban population, with more than 80 % exposed to poor air quality. In this sense, this thesis will center the analysis in Brindisi, an intermediate city in Puglia near the Adriatic Sea, with poor air quality related to PM10 and NO2.
There are different ways to improve urban air quality. The direct is related to tackling the sources, like industries or changing the traffic patterns. The complementary ones are the ones that want to reduce the population's exposure. This last one is the green infrastructure (GI) implementation, which captures the air pollutants by increasing the deposition surfaces. In this sense, the objective of the thesis is the “Assessment of how different green infrastructures impact the urban air quality (PM10 and NOx) in different Local Climate Zones of Brindisi, Italy”.
The methodology has several steps to achieve the objectives. The urban air quality was evaluated using data of NOx and PM10 from five ARPA weather stations for the complete year of 2021. The GI was selected as the most used in the literature regarding the topic. The GIS methodology was implemented to generate the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) of Brindisi, using Puglia Territorial Database information, with these two areas of the cities were selected, LCZ 2 and LCZ 6. Simulations in ENVI-MET were run to get the effects of the GI interventions on air quality and thermal comfort. Finally, the evaluation of the results was done in ArcGIS-Pro.
The first map of LCZ level 1 was generated for Brindisi, Italy and the results showed a good correlation with the reality. Regarding the urban air pollution, it was determined that the population is exposed to high risk by NOx and not by PM10. Concerning the effects of GI intervention, the results showed that there is a combination of factors that change the impact. In LCZ 2, where the urban canyons had greater aspect ratio of 0.7, the implementation of trees deteriorated the air quality as they trapped the pollutants in the lower atmosphere. In LCZ 6, the results were not as bad as in LCZ 2, but the impact of GI on air quality was not the expected, and they depended not only in the urban canyon but also on the regional winds. In both cases, the implementation of GI generated better thermal comfort conditions.
The conclusions are that more than GI implementations is needed to improve urban air quality. A more profound discussion about which typology of streets we want in the city is necessary to get better air quality and more lively, sociable, and green urban areas.
There are different ways to improve urban air quality. The direct is related to tackling the sources, like industries or changing the traffic patterns. The complementary ones are the ones that want to reduce the population's exposure. This last one is the green infrastructure (GI) implementation, which captures the air pollutants by increasing the deposition surfaces. In this sense, the objective of the thesis is the “Assessment of how different green infrastructures impact the urban air quality (PM10 and NOx) in different Local Climate Zones of Brindisi, Italy”.
The methodology has several steps to achieve the objectives. The urban air quality was evaluated using data of NOx and PM10 from five ARPA weather stations for the complete year of 2021. The GI was selected as the most used in the literature regarding the topic. The GIS methodology was implemented to generate the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) of Brindisi, using Puglia Territorial Database information, with these two areas of the cities were selected, LCZ 2 and LCZ 6. Simulations in ENVI-MET were run to get the effects of the GI interventions on air quality and thermal comfort. Finally, the evaluation of the results was done in ArcGIS-Pro.
The first map of LCZ level 1 was generated for Brindisi, Italy and the results showed a good correlation with the reality. Regarding the urban air pollution, it was determined that the population is exposed to high risk by NOx and not by PM10. Concerning the effects of GI intervention, the results showed that there is a combination of factors that change the impact. In LCZ 2, where the urban canyons had greater aspect ratio of 0.7, the implementation of trees deteriorated the air quality as they trapped the pollutants in the lower atmosphere. In LCZ 6, the results were not as bad as in LCZ 2, but the impact of GI on air quality was not the expected, and they depended not only in the urban canyon but also on the regional winds. In both cases, the implementation of GI generated better thermal comfort conditions.
The conclusions are that more than GI implementations is needed to improve urban air quality. A more profound discussion about which typology of streets we want in the city is necessary to get better air quality and more lively, sociable, and green urban areas.