Issue 3
Issue on Global Climatic Change/Air Quality
Risk assessment of chemicals in a toxicological laboratory: A case study
General
The toxicity of a chemical substance in a workplace depends on both its physical and chemical properties, the level of concentration in the breathing air, as well as, the duration of the exposure. In order to ensure healthy conditions at workplace, international organizations, such as the World...
Cyclodextrins: a potential absorbent for VOC abatement
General
The capacity of cyclodextrins in trapping VOCs is studied. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are a family of cyclic oligosaccharides that are composed of α-1,4-linked glucopyranose subunits. The most notable feature of cyclodextrins is their ability to form inclusion complexes (host–guest complexes) in solution...
Air quality and pollution mapping system, using remote measurements and GPS technology
General
According to the actual European context, including the development of risk free residential and industrial areas, the main demand lies in instant, accurate and elaborated information regarding environment quality and pollution risks. This paper presents a conceptual architecture for a versatile...
A comparison of two interaction matrix coding techniques used in a GIS-based tool for air quality assessment
General
The paper describes the development of a fast and easy-to-use qualitative tool for preliminary assessments of urban air quality related to road traffic. The tool is particularly aimed at the ability and budget of local government. It uses a novel interaction matrix-type methodology combined with...
Effect of the relative humidity on an industrial plume behavior
General
In order to accurately predict the pollutant concentrations and the plume trajectory in the atmosphere, it is necessary to take into account the effects of interactions between the plume and the surrounding environment. In fact, the atmospheric conditions have a lot of influence on the plume...
Impact of using adulterated automotive diesel on the exhaust emissions of a stationary diesel engine
General
The EU Directives and legislation by worldwide environmental authorities impose constantly lower levels for the airborne pollutant emissions of internal combustion engines towards the goal of zero emission vehicles. During the last decade, engine manufacturers, refiners and fuel companies invest...
Vehicle emissions and driving cycles: comparison of the Athens driving cycle (ADC) with ECE-15 and European driving cycle (EDC)
General
Vehicle emissions constitute the main source of atmospheric pollution in modern cities. The increasing number of passenger cars, especially during the last decade, resulted in composite traffic problems with serious consequences on emissions and fuel consumption. This project was carried out in the...
Estimation and measurement of the automobile pollution : application to Bejaia case
General
In this paper, we present the estimate and results of measurement of air pollution in Béjaia city in Algeria. We used an enclosure of 0,80 m3 for the collection of gases directly on the outlet side of the tailpipe of the vehicles. A three-gas detector (MX21 plus), introduced inside the enclosure...
Wind-field and pollution-dispersion simulation in a street canyon in Helsinki with ADREA-HF code
General
ADREA-HF, which is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code, is utilised in order to numerically study the flow and concentration fields within a street-canyon area. The selected site is Runeberg Str., a typical urban street canyon with an aspect ratio of approximately 1:1 in Helsinki, Finland. The...
Assessment and prediction of benzene concentrations in a street canyon using a variety of models, in the means of environmental management purposes
General
Urban air quality nowadays is one of the major environmental issues, due to its impact to various health problems, caused by the daily exposure of the population in dangerous air pollutants. The highest levels of air pollutants are usually observed in street canyons, emitted by urban traffic. To...
Chemical identification of semi-urban aerosols by laser raman spectroscopy
General
Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in local, regional meteorology, visibility, air pollution, haze formation and energy balance of radiation. These processes influence the climate directly or indirectly. Therefore, for increasing importance of aerosols in understanding the various...
Concentration measurements and chemical characterization of PM2.5 at an industrial coastal site in Saronic Gulf, Greece
General
Aerosols samples of PM2.5 were collected during October 2004 in the industrial zone of the greater Athens area, located in the coastal region of Saronic Gulf, westerly of the city. In particular, two different sites were selected, in order to obtain experimental data from: a) the shoreline, where...
An application of theoretical probability distributions, to the study of PM10 and PM2.5 time series in Athens, Greece
General
Probability density functions (pdf) have been used in the analysis of the distribution of pollutant data, for examining the frequency of high concentration events. There have been very few studies on the concentration distribution of PM in urban areas. The distribution of PM concentrations has an...
PM10-PM2.5 time series and fractal analysis
General
Several epidemiological studies have shown an association between particulate air pollution and health effects. Suspended particulates and more specifically the inhalable PM10 fraction appear to cause respiratory health effects and heart diseases. Furthermore, particulate pollution is of paramount...
Analysis of wet acid deposition in Macau
General
Records of precipitation in Macau are collected from three local monitoring stations from 1993 to 2003. Chemical compositions of precipitation are analyzed to reveal the causes of wet deposition in Macau. The review of annual rainfall volumes and the volume weighted annual pH values over this period...
An automated classification method of daily circulation patterns for surface climate data downscaling based on optimized fuzzy rules
General
A method for automated circulation patterns (CPs) definition and classification is presented, based on optimized fuzzy rules. The target of the method is to provide a basis (daily classified CPs) for downscaling of the most common climate data, i.e. precipitation and temperature. Therefore the...
Total column ozone and solar UV-B erythemal irradiance over Kishinev, Moldova
General
Results of the total column ozone and ultraviolet (UV-B) erythemally weighted irradiance measurements at the ground-based solar monitoring station at the Kishinev (Moldova) are presented. Diffuse and global components of solar UV-B erythemal irradiance on horizontal plane were continuously measured...
Study of future climatic variations of a teleconnection pattern affecting Eastern Mediterranean
General
A teleconnection pattern has been identified between Eastern Mediterranean and Northwestern Europe in the geopotential fields of the upper troposphere (hereafter will be referred to as EMP) during winter and it seems to play significant role in the large-scale atmospheric circulation over...
Trends of the daily maximum temperatures in relation with the climatic change and the urbanization in the Athens basin
General
It is well known that the studies that associate the climatic changes with the greenhouse effect, as a sequence of uninterruptedly ongoing figures in the concentration mainly of carbon dioxide, have been focused on the trends of the mean temperature. On the other hand the variability and the trends...
El-Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO): Recent Evolution and Possibilities for Long Range Flow Forecasting in the Brahmaputra-Jamuna River
General
The El Nino-Southern Oscillation is the dominant pattern of short-term climate variation, and is therefore of great importance in climate studies. Some recent studies showed the teleconnection between stream flow and the El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This paper...