Impact of transport sector on air quality in Warsaw – a multi-tool study

Urban air quality is one of the challenges due to high exposure resulting from high population density and high pollutant concentrations. Developing effective strategies to improve air quality requires determining the contribution of different emission sources within the city compared to the influence of the inflow from surrounding areas.

In Polish cities, the residential sector is a dominant source of particulate matter. However, transportation is also a significant source of pollution, especially concerning NO₂.

The main goal of the project was to assess the impact of the transportation sector on air quality in Warsaw. We have applied a muti-tool approach. The analysis of a 5-year series of air quality observations at urban background stations and the traffic station let to identify systemic differences attributed to road transport. Based on the GEM-AQ model results, the contribution of the transport setor in selected districts was assessed. The SHERPA bottom-up tool for Poland was applied to estimate the impact of line sources on PM10, PM2.5 and NO₂ concentrations in Warsaw metropolitan area. Also, two local models were used – the IEP-NRI gaussian model combined with the machine learning techniques, and the ATMOSYS model developed by VITO. The intercomparison brought a valuable outcomes on the completeness and accuracy of the emission data applied.

We will present and discuss the percentage contribution of road transport-related pollutant concentrations in Warsaw based on the different model results.