Introduction

In the interest of public health we must guard against excessive air pollution caused by human activities. Urban and transportation development, manufacture and other human activity are all regulated to achieve this end. To assure that regulations are effective, a system of modeling and monitoring is used. Models are used to predict the effect of proposed regulations affecting air quality, and monitoring is needed to verify models and outcomes [1].

In this project you will write code to implement a simple air pollution model for Salt Lake County. The model is only intended for instructional purposes. Models used in formulating public policy are necessarily more sophisticated.

This project deals with carbon monoxide (CO), a poisonous gas generated primarily from automobile emissions. We choose carbon monoxide among a wide variety of pollutants, because it is a fairly nonreactive gas with a simple origin. Other pollutants, such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and fine particulates arise from a variety of sources and/or are reactive, so dissipate in more complicated ways.

Our simple model includes the following features:

1. A time varying traffic volume as a source of CO
2. Area sources of CO
3. Crude topography for the Salt Lake basin
4. A time-varying boundary layer including temperature inversion
5. Advection due to time-varying prevailing winds
6. Diffusion

The project involves writing computer code to simulate the model and generating maps of pollutant concentrations over a 24 hour period, based on some weather and traffic scenarios.

What is described here is a minimal model for the project. You are invited to refine it. Please discuss your refinements with the instructor before proceeding.