Abstract
Flow and pollutant dispersion models are important elements for managing air quality in urban areas, to complement and, sometimes, even substitute monitoring. Developing fast and reliable parameterisations is necessary to improve the spatial and temporal resolutions of current mathematical prediction models. Recently there has been a growing interest in the so-called "neighbourhood scale" models, that offer relatively high spatial and temporal resolutions while keeping the needed computational resources at a minimum. This paper describes experimental and numerical simulations performed to explore the interaction of flow and pollutant dispersion with local building and street geometry. The methods developed may be useful as a way for cities to improve air quality management. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.