AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Predicting the Effectiveness of Vegetation Barriers on Near-Road PM
JONATHAN STEFFENS, K. Max Zhang, Cornell University
Abstract Number: 522 Working Group: Urban Aerosols
Abstract Roadside vegetation barriers have been suggested as a potential mitigation strategy for near-road air pollution. However, there is still a lack of mechanistic understanding of how roadside barriers affect pollutant transport and transformation on and near roadways. In this talk, we present the recent advancement of modeling capability in predicting the effectiveness of vegetation barriers on near-road PM. We adopt the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model to resolve the plume transport across vegetation barriers, coupled with an improved aerosol dynamics model to capture the particle deposition. The results show a significant improvement over our previous attempt described in Steffens and Zhang (2012). The modeling sensitivities to the height, width, depth, and leaf area density of vegetation barriers as well as meteorological conditions are investigated. The implications on green infrastructure designs will also be discussed.