High Spatial Resolution Assessment of the Effect of the Spanish National Air Pollution Control Programme on Street-Level NO2 Concentrations in Three Neighborhoods of Madrid (Spain) Using Mesoscale and CFD Modelling

Current European legislation aims to reduce the air pollutants emitted by European countries in the coming years. In this context, this article studies the effects on air quality of the measures considered for 2030 in the Spanish National Air Pollution Control Programme (NAPCP). Three different emission scenarios are investigated: a scenario with the emissions in 2016 and two other scenarios, one with existing measures in the current legislation (WEM2030) and another one considering the additional measures of NAPCP (WAM2030). Previous studies have addressed this issue at a national level, but this study assesses the impact at the street scale in three neighborhoods in Madrid, Spain. NO2 concentrations are modelled at high spatial resolution by means of a methodology based on computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations driven by mesoscale meteorological and air quality modelling. Spatial averages of annual mean NO2 concentrations are only estimated to be below 40 mu g/m(3) in all three neighborhoods for the WAM2030 emission scenarios. However, for two of the three neighborhoods, there are still zones (4-12% of the study areas) where the annual concentration is higher than 40 mu g/m(3). This highlights the importance of considering microscale simulations to assess the impacts of emission reduction measures on urban air quality.

Automated summary

This article studies the effects of the measures considered for 2030 in the Spanish National Air Pollution Control Programme (NAPCP) on air quality. High spatial resolution modeling shows that in the emission scenarios for 2030, annual mean NO2 concentrations are estimated to be below 40 μg/m³ only with the additional measures of NAPCP.