Emissions and trajectories of atmospheric pollutants from mobile sources in a Colombian intermediate city

Abstract

In this study, the emissions of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases from mobile sources in the main streets of the city of Valledupar were estimated. A vehicular characterization of the streets studied was carried out, and the IVE model was implemented to estimate the emissions generated by automobiles; subsequently, scenarios of atmospheric transport routes of pollutants were analyzed with the HYSPLIT model. The results showed that in the case of pollutant criteria, motorcycles emitted the highest amount of CO and PM10, and private cars the highest SOx and NOx emissions. For GHGs, private cars emitted the highest amount of CO2 and N2O, while motorcycles emitted the highest amount of CH4. The trajectory scenarios for the days of the study were carried out during the peak hours of vehicular circulation, implementing meteorological data from the WRF model. The trajectories were evaluated in rainy periods of 2021 and 2022 and in the dry period of 2022. In the rainy period, it was observed that the transport routes of the pollutants were directed in a greater proportion towards the NE direction and the dry period towards the SE direction. With this, it was possible to determine which areas of the city could be the most affected by vehicle emissions from the roads studied.