Dispersion of Sulphur Dioxide and Particulate Matter in the Patras Air and the Contribution of their Sources to Patras Downtown Receptors

Goal and Scope. The Environmental Engineering Laboratory (EEL) of the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Patras, in the context of research and education purposes, has conducted a number of air pollution monitoring programs. Due to the lack of a systematic monitoring network operating continuously since the year 2001, the need of tuning a model to be applicable in the Patras downtown area becomes both necessary and valuable for the air quality assessment and management. The main purpose of this paper is the prediction ability of the air pollution in the city of Patras. The interest is focused on the research of the dispersion of sulphur dioxide (SO sub(2)) and Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) or respiratory particulates with a diameter of less than 10 mu m (PM sub(10)), according to the prevailing meteorological and geographical conditions. For validation reasons, this study has implemented the mean monthly concentrations for the time period of 1994-1995, which have been measured by the EEL. The results predicted are based on only human source emissions, as the ship calls and traffic in the Patras harbor, the downtown traffic and the central heating. The quite good behavior of the model encourages its usage for other periods where data is lacking.