Dispersion of Air Pollution and its Penetration into the Local Environment—DAPPLE

The DAPPLE - Dispersion of Air Pollution and its Penetration into the Local Environment - is a 4-year U.K. Engineering and Physcial Sciences Reseach Council (EPSRC) funded project within the Infrastructure and Environment Programme. The aim of the DAPPLE project is to enhance understanding of pollutant dispersion processes in realistic urban environments i.e. the street canyon intersection. This information will be used to make improvements in predictive ability that will enable better planning and management of urban air quality, and the development of safer, more sustainable cities.

At present processes of dispersion of air pollution are poorly understood over short distances in the urban environment. DAPPLE brings together a multidisciplinary reserach group from six U.K. universities that are undertaking field measurments, wind tunnel modelling and computer simulations in order to provide a better understanding of the physcial processes affecting street and neighbourhood scale flow of air, traffic and people and their corresponding interactions with the dispersion of pollutants at street canyon instersctions.

This poster introduces the DAPPLE project and details the field measurements and intial results made during two intensive campaigns at the intersection of Marylebone Road and Gloucester Place in Westminster, Central London, U.K. during April-May 2003 and 2004. The field measurements include meteorology (upto 10 ultrasonic anemometers), roadside pollution levels (upto 15 CO Learian Streetboxes), traffic flow (SCOOT), personal exposure (CO, PM2.5 and Ultrafines) and inert tracer releases (PMCH and SF6). Updated information is available on the DAPPLE website at http://www.dapple.org.uk