Numerical Modelling for Studying the Impact of Urban Air Pollution in Natural Reserves around Setúbal City

Numerical modelling was used to study the impact of urban air pollution from Setúbal City in two important natural reserves. Setúbal is a city in the middle south Portugal with a large resident population, important industry and intense traffic activities. There is an important harbour, which is responsible for intense heavy vehicle traffic. Setúbal is surrounded by two natural reserves, a mountain (Arrábida) and a river delta (Sado River). There is also an important tourist zone near Setúbal with important beaches and tourist activities. The main pollutants considered in this study were SO2, Particles, NOx, CO, and VOC. A range of numerical models there was used to produce results. The AMDS-Urban model was used for the pollutants dispersion, the FLOWSTAR model for the meteorological conditions and the MOBILE 6.0 to estimate traffic emissions. One database was made containing information about industry emissions and other emissions in the city. It was also used a geographic information system. Numerical modelling was done considering all models and information coupled and numerical simulations were produced for different emissions and meteorological conditions. This numerical approach can be successfully applied to other cases to study the impact of urban air pollution. The tourist zone is the most affected by the urban air pollution but both reverses can also be affected manly depending on the meteorological conditions which are mostly depending on the seasonally. This work has been developed with the financial support of the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and FEDER under Sapiens Programme (project no POCTI/MGS/47247/2002).