Air pollution modeling at road sides using the operational street pollution model--a case study in Hanoi, Vietnam

In many metropolitan areas, traffic is the main source of air pollution. The high concentrations of pollutants in streets have the potential to affect human health. Therefore, estimation of air pollution at the street level is required for health impact assessment. This task has been carried out in many developed countries by a combination of air quality measurements and modeling. This study focuses on how to apply a dispersion model to cities in the developing world, where model input data and data from air quality monitoring stations are limited or of varying quality. This research uses the operational street pollution model (OSPM) developed by the National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark for a case study in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. OSPM predictions from five streets were evaluated against air pollution measurements of nitrogen oxides (NO(x)), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and benzene (BNZ) that were available from previous studies. Hourly measurements and passive sample measurements collected over 3-week periods were compared with model outputs, applying emission factors from previous studies. In addition, so-called "backward calculations" were performed to adapt the emission factors for Hanoi conditions. The average fleet emission factors estimated can be used for emission calculations at other streets in Hanoi and in other locations in Southeast Asia with similar vehicle types. This study also emphasizes the need to further eliminate uncertainties in input data for the street-scale air pollution modeling in Vietnam, namely by providing reliable emission factors and hourly air pollution measurements of high quality.