Papers by Keyword: Air Quality

Abstract: Cities and towns are expanding and thriving as a result of urbanization, which also significantly changes the local climate. One of the most significant phenomena associated with urbanization is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This phenomenon is increasingly being studied worldwide. The paper aims to investigate the UHI phenomenon in the metropolitan area of Tirana, Albania. It analyses the impact of the UHI on four specific locations in Tirana, its causes and mitigation measures, as well as variations in surface temperature, CO2 emissions, and relative humidity. The regions are measured and observed using a specific instrument such as the Testo 435. Considering the mean surface temperature variations between urban and rural regions ranging from 28.4°C to 33.7 °C, CO2 emissions from 302.9 ppm to 416.2 ppm, and relative humidity from 34.1% to 41.2%, it is found that the UHI impact in Tirana is significant. The lack of green spaces, high building density, urban patterns, building materials used, transport, and energy use are the main contributors to the UHI in central Tirana. Increasing green spaces, using reflective materials, and promoting sustainable urban design are some of the mitigation techniques suggested to reduce the UHI effect in Tirana.

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to present some aspects about how we can use multiple attribute decision making tools for modeling global air pollution level, an indicator which can be used to analyze and compare the air quality from different regions in order to establish their hierarchy according to this aspect. An indicator for the global air pollution level, obtained by applying SAW method is proposed in this paper. When applying multiple attribute decision making methods not only different methods can be used to solve the problem of interest, but different kind of tools within same method. In this paper we also make comparisons between different normalization techniques we can use, in order to see if and how they influence the proposed indicator and, therefore, the final hierarchy of the regions we want to rank according to it.

Abstract: The present contribution, reports on the results of ongoing research efforts on performance assessment of a number of buildings designed by the Austrian architect, Konrad Frey. He is a pioneer of energy-efficient architecture, and his designs, those dating back to the 1970s, adapted the principles of modern solar houses. The current study focuses on the Kindergarten Hart, which was especially designed focusing on the availability of cross ventilation option in building. For the purpose of analyzing thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and the occupants’ adaptive actions with respect to natural ventilation, we conducted long-term monitoring under summer and winter conditions. The monitoring efforts covered indoor and outdoor environmental conditions, as well as the state of windows. Thereby, study of the monitored dataset provides a better understanding of the building performance. Moreover, it makes it possible to examine whether the architect’s expectations in terms of thermal comfort and indoor air quality levels are fulfilled or not. In addition, investigation of the occupants’ interactions with windows, together with indoor and outdoor environmental conditions, assists understanding of possible associations between the window opening/closing and environmental parameters, as well as potential optimization of the control-oriented actions.

Abstract: Man requires a thermal environment that is within the range of his adaptive capacity and if this fluctuates outside the normal, a reaction is required beyond its adaptive capacity which results to health challenges. Therefore, the aim of building design in the tropical region is to minimize the heat gain indoors and enhance evaporative cooling of the occupants of the space so as to achieve thermal comfort. In most cases, the passive technologies are not adequate in moderating indoor climate for human comfort thereby relying on active energy technique to provide the needed comfort for the building users. The need for the use of vegetation as a panacea for achieving comfortable indoor thermal conditions in housing is recognised by architects globally. However, the practice by architects in Nigeria is still at the lower ebb. The thrust of this paper therefore is to examine the impact of vegetation in solar control reducing thermal discomfort in housing thereby enhancing the energy performance of the buildings. Using secondary data, the paper identifies the benefits of vegetation in and around buildings to include improvement of indoor air quality through the aesthetics quality of the environment and concludes that vegetation in and around building will in no small measure contributes to saving energy consumption.

Abstract: In the modern era, the environmental issues have taken significant toll on human lives. Air pollution across indoor and outdoor environment are sometime dangerous for human health and it needs to be addressed. In the present work, an attempt has been done to develop remotely controllable semi-automated vehicle for air quality analysis. The semi-automated vehicle has been equipped with gas sensor for analyzing air quality in a given target area. Camera has been installed in the vehicle to monitor and navigate the target area, which will help the user to attain an effective path. The semi-automated vehicle is controlled by using remote control device and wireless connection system. The sensor will sense the air quality in the target area and the achieved results will be fed to the user via wireless communication. It makes easy for the user to do air pollution monitoring check and also to prevent the gas poisoning cases from the occurrence.

Abstract: The paper analyzes the microbial constituents residing in buildings with more people, such as basic school or office spaces. The aim is to determine whether these areas with similar equipment and similar cleaning regime have similar parameters of microbial environment. Within the quantitative analysis we have carried out the collection of microbial particles dispersed in the air and deposited on floors, furniture and walls inequalities. It was found that the internal environment of buildings with natural ventilation is significantly on the condition of ambient air. In the environment of greater occupancy there are more bacteria than fungi. Rooms in the same building, but not directly neighbouring, have an independent environment.

Abstract: Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is a well known risk to human health. Vehicular traffic is one of the major sources of particulates in an urban setting.We study a problem of road dust dispersion. Using CFD solver based on RANS equations, we investigate the effect of a vegetation barrier on the concentration of airborne PM induced by road traffic. Simplified 2D model of a porous obstacle adjacent to a road source of two classes of particles serves as an idealization of a real-world situation.Filtering efficiency of the barrier is investigated under varying atmospheric conditions. Our model indicate that the efficiency decreases for increasing wind speed. Effect of atmospheric stratification on~the~air quality behind the barrier is shown to be highly dependent on the wind speed.

Abstract: This study aims to measure the concentration of heavy metals of concern Lead (Pb), Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr), Cadmium (Cd) and Nickel (Ni) at three university campus buildings which was situated adjacent to an industrial district. Heavy metals particulates were sampled from the PM₁₀ sampling device (Met One Instrument) in 24 hours sampling between lecture and holiday periods. Determination of heavy metals concentrations were conducted using Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) after the filter papers were digested with mixture of nitric acid (HNO₃) and sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄). These heavy metal concentrations were compared to the Standard Concentration on Air such as World Health Organization Health (WHO), Ambient Air Quality Criteria Act 1994 (AAQC), National Environment Protection Council (NEPS) and also Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The comparison with Standard Concentration of Air shows that Cd and Cu have low concentrations 0.0033±0.0018 μg/m³ and 0.0894±0.0614 μg/m³ while Cr and Ni have high concentrations of 0.1882±0.0535 μg/m³ and 0.1278±0.0323 μg/m³ respectively. The Pb gives irregular result and high standard deviation of 2.0410±3.4999 μg/m³. This finding produces significant contribution to some knowledge of the level of heavy metals in the study area. It identifies research needs and suggests potential approaches to addressing outstanding problems.

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to present some aspects about Onicescu multi-criteria decision method and its application in decision problems regarding environmental quality. The mentioned method is applied to an air pollution problem, namely a problem in which we want to rank the counties from a certain region with respect to a complex air quality characteristic, a characteristic which incorporates all the most important air pollutants that exist in the considered region. Both variants of this method are applied in this paper and a comparison study between them is also made.

Abstract: This paper proposes an intelligent system of detecting air quality based on SPCE061A. The system mainly detects the concentration of combustible gas in air through gas sensors. After a series of data analysis, air quality information will be presented on the LCD screen. At the same time, when the gas concentration exceeds a value, it can relive harm automatically and remote alarm. So that it can prevent the happening of the malignant accident.