Understanding Urban Air Quality and Emissions

At our recent Air Quality and Emissions event, Professor Ronald Cohen of University of California, Berkley, gave a presentation on a new methodology for mapping and modelling ambient air in urban environments.

Most people on earth live and work in urban environments. For all of the convenience, grandeur and diversity of lifestyle that many cities offer, pretty much all cities are plagued by dangerously poor air quality and are responsible for a significant majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, in the battle to reduce global warming, the city is the front-line. To win a war, of course, one needs reliable intelligence; managing the path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and redressing public health inequities requires regular and reliable environmental monitoring. It will be increasingly important to able to monitor the emission-levels and atmospheric chemistry of cities around the world with the fine-grained detail necessary for the evaluation of reduction strategies.

Enter the Berkeley Environment, Air Quality and CO₂ Network (or BEACO₂N), an advanced air monitoring network mapping urban CO₂, NO_x, CO, O₃ and aerosols. The maps produced by BEACO₂N utilise Gaussian mathematical models and sophisticated inversions derived from high-resolution weather models. As a result, the system establishes unique observational constraints on spatial and temporal patterns of CO₂ and other emissions.

To watch Professor Cohen’s presentation on urban air quality, click the link. And if you’d like to view the entire session and panel discussion, register here to gain access to the on-demand video library of talks from our Air Quality and Emissions event.

If you find these resources valuable, consider attending the next Air Quality and Emissions conference.