Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment

Traffic-related air pollution is now a major concern. The Rio Earth Summit and the Government's commitment to Agenda 21 has led to Local Authorities taking responsibility to manage the growing number of vehicles and to reduce the impact of traffic on the environment. There is an urgent need to...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Reynolds, Shirley Anne
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 1996
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11740/
_version_ 1848791349138030592
author Reynolds, Shirley Anne
author_facet Reynolds, Shirley Anne
author_sort Reynolds, Shirley Anne
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Traffic-related air pollution is now a major concern. The Rio Earth Summit and the Government's commitment to Agenda 21 has led to Local Authorities taking responsibility to manage the growing number of vehicles and to reduce the impact of traffic on the environment. There is an urgent need to effectively monitor urban air quality at reasonable cost and to develop long and short term air pollution prediction models. The aim of the research described was to investigate relationships between traffic characteristics and kerbside air pollution concentrations. Initially, the only pollution monitoring equipment available was basic and required constant supervision. The traffic data was made available from the demand-responsive traffic signal control systems in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. However, it was found that the surveys were too short to produce statistically significant results, and no useful conclusions could be drawn. Subsequently, an automatic, remote kerbside monitoring system was developed specifically for this research. The data collected was analysed using multiple regression techniques in an attempt to obtain an empirical relationship which could be used to predict roadside pollution concentrations from traffic and meteorological data. However, the residual series were found to be autocorrelated, which meant that the statistical tests were invalid. It was then found to be possible to fit an accurate model to the data using time series analysis, but that it could not predict levels even in the short-term. Finally, a semi-empirical model was developed by estimating the proportion of vehicles passing a point in each operating mode (cruising, accelerating, decelerating and idling) and using real data to derive the coefficients. Unfortunately, it was again not possible to define a reliable predictive relationship. However, suggestions have been made about how this research could be progressed to achieve its aim.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T18:27:06Z
format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
id nottingham-11740
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T18:27:06Z
publishDate 1996
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-117402025-02-28T11:15:20Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11740/ Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment Reynolds, Shirley Anne Traffic-related air pollution is now a major concern. The Rio Earth Summit and the Government's commitment to Agenda 21 has led to Local Authorities taking responsibility to manage the growing number of vehicles and to reduce the impact of traffic on the environment. There is an urgent need to effectively monitor urban air quality at reasonable cost and to develop long and short term air pollution prediction models. The aim of the research described was to investigate relationships between traffic characteristics and kerbside air pollution concentrations. Initially, the only pollution monitoring equipment available was basic and required constant supervision. The traffic data was made available from the demand-responsive traffic signal control systems in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. However, it was found that the surveys were too short to produce statistically significant results, and no useful conclusions could be drawn. Subsequently, an automatic, remote kerbside monitoring system was developed specifically for this research. The data collected was analysed using multiple regression techniques in an attempt to obtain an empirical relationship which could be used to predict roadside pollution concentrations from traffic and meteorological data. However, the residual series were found to be autocorrelated, which meant that the statistical tests were invalid. It was then found to be possible to fit an accurate model to the data using time series analysis, but that it could not predict levels even in the short-term. Finally, a semi-empirical model was developed by estimating the proportion of vehicles passing a point in each operating mode (cruising, accelerating, decelerating and idling) and using real data to derive the coefficients. Unfortunately, it was again not possible to define a reliable predictive relationship. However, suggestions have been made about how this research could be progressed to achieve its aim. 1996 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11740/1/319950.pdf Reynolds, Shirley Anne (1996) Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Air pollution automobiles motors exhaust
spellingShingle Air
pollution
automobiles
motors
exhaust
Reynolds, Shirley Anne
Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment
title Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment
title_full Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment
title_fullStr Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment
title_full_unstemmed Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment
title_short Monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment
title_sort monitoring and prediction of air polution from traffic in the urban environment
topic Air
pollution
automobiles
motors
exhaust
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11740/