Traffic contribution to air pollution in urban street canyons: Integrated application of the OSPM, moss biomonitoring and spectral analysis

To investigate the air pollutant distribution within the ambient of urban street canyon, Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM) was used to predict hourly content of NOX, NO, NO2, O3, CO, BNZ and PM10. The study was performed in five street canyons in Belgrade (Serbia) during 10-week summer period. The model receptors were located on each side of street canyons at 4 m, 8 m and 16 m height. To monitor airborne trace element content, the moss bag biomonitors were simultaneously exposed with the model receptors at two heights–4 m and 16 m. The results of both methods, modelling and biomonitoring, showed significantly decreasing trend of the air pollutants with height. The results indirectly demonstrate that biomonitoring, i.e., moss bag technique could be a valuable tool to verify model performance. In addition, spectral analysis was applied to investigate weekly variation of the daily background and modelled data set. Typical periodicities and weekend effect, caused by anthropogenic influences, have been identified. •The OSPM is used inside Belgrade (Serbia) street canyons with public garages.•The modelled PM10 is compared with trace element in moss biomonitoring.•The results of both methods showed significantly decreasing trend with height.•Moss bag technique could be a valuable tool to verify model performance.•Typical periodicities and weekend effect have been identified by spectral analysis.