Modelling urban air pollution in Espoo, Finland

The main objective of this study is to analyse quantitatively the influence of urban air pollution on the health of children. For this aim, one has to analyse the concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere, analyse the indoor air concentrations, and conduct epidemiological surveys. This paper addresses the first part of the study, i.e. the application of atmospheric dispersion models for analysing outdoor air quality. The area considered is Espoo, the neighbouring city of Helsinki. Numerical results have been computed with an urban dispersion modelling system, using emissions and meteorological data for the year 1990. The computations included carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide; this paper focuses on the results for nitrogen dioxide.