PhD Studentship: Air quality box modelling for an urban street network

Air pollution associated with the road traffic is the major environmental issue in urban areas. Buildings in urban areas are the artificial obstacles to the urban atmospheric flow and cause the insufficient ventilation. The outdooor population exposure to air pollution is confined within a space below buidling heights called urban canopy layer, which typically consists of a network of streets. Pollution levels inside the urban canopy layer are not only controlled by the local conditions such as traffic emissions, chemical reactions and turbulent mixing with the cleaner atmosphere aloft, but also affected by horizontal advection of pollutants from the adjacent streets in the network. The importance of the interactions among chemical ractions, turbulent mixing and horizontal advection in an urcan street network is a knowledge gap that this project attempts to fill.

This 3-year project aims to numerically model the interactions among chemical ractions, turbulent mixing and horizontal advection in an urcan street network. The network model will be built upon an existing in-house code of a street canyon box model that deals with traffic emissions, chemical reactions and turbulent mixing with the cleaner atmosphere aloft. Successful completion of the project will help identify the important processes that are missing in the current operational air quality models. This study could potentially support traffic management, urban planning strategy and/or personal exposure assessment.

Applicants are expected to have a very good bachelor’s or master’s degree in the subjects of atmospheric science (physics and/or chemistry), meteorology, engineering, or environmental science. Programming skills are preferred. The PhD student will join a vibrant research group, Environmental Health Sciences, comprised of leading scientists in the areas of transport, chemical and physical transformations of atmospheric constituents, and the effects of air pollution upon the environment, and particularly upon human health.

Keywords: traffic-related air pollution; urban street canyon; urban street network; box modelling; photochemistry; NO2, NOx, O3, VOC.