The impact of measures to reduce ambient air PM₁₀ concentrations originating from road dust, evaluated for a street canyon in Helsinki

• Main Authors: A. Stojiljkovic, M. Kauhaniemi, J. Kukkonen, K. Kupiainen, A. Karppinen, B. R. Denby, A. Kousa, J. V. Niemi, M. Ketzel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2019-09-01
• Series: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Online Access: https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/19/11199/2019/acp-19-11199-2019.pdf

<p>We have numerically evaluated how effective selected potential measures would be for reducing the impact of road dust on ambient air particulate matter (PM<span class="inline-formula">₁₀</span>). The selected measures included a reduction of the use of studded tyres on light-duty vehicles and a reduction of the use of salt or sand for traction control. We have evaluated these measures for a street canyon located in central Helsinki for four years (2007–2009 and 2014). Air quality measurements were conducted in the street canyon for two years, 2009 and 2014. Two road dust emission models, NORTRIP (NOn-exhaust Road TRaffic Induced Particle emissions) and FORE (Forecasting Of Road dust Emissions), were applied in combination with the Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM), a street canyon dispersion model, to compute the street increments of PM<span class="inline-formula">₁₀</span> (i.e. the fraction of PM<span class="inline-formula">₁₀</span> concentration originating from traffic emissions at the street level) within the street canyon. The predicted concentrations were compared with the air quality measurements. Both road dust emission models reproduced the seasonal variability of the PM<span class="inline-formula">₁₀</span> concentrations fairly well but under-predicted the annual mean values. It was found that the largest reductions of concentrations could potentially be achieved by reducing the fraction of vehicles that use studded tyres. For instance, a 30&thinsp;% decrease in the number of vehicles using studded tyres would result in an average decrease in the non-exhaust street increment of PM<span class="inline-formula">₁₀</span> from 10&thinsp;% to 22&thinsp;%, depending on the model used and the year considered. Modelled contributions of traction sand and salt to the annual mean non-exhaust street increment of PM<span class="inline-formula">₁₀</span> ranged from 4&thinsp;% to 20&thinsp;% for the traction sand and from 0.1&thinsp;% to 4&thinsp;% for the traction salt. The results presented here can be used to support the development of optimal strategies for reducing high springtime particulate matter concentrations originating from road dust.</p>