Newsletter
AS3.6 Megacities: Air Quality and Climate Impacts from Local to Global Scales
EGU General Assembly 2013 (EGU2013), 07 Apr 2013 - 12 Apr 2013, Vienna, Austria.
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2013/session/11589
Deadline for the receipt of Abstracts: 09 Jan 2013.
Convener: Luisa Molina
Co-Conveners: Michael Gauss, Alexander Baklanov
The world's population is projected to increase 33% during the next three decades, to 8.1 billion. Nearly all of the projected growth is expected to be concentrated in urban centers. These rapidly expanding urban regions and surrounding suburban areas are leading to the phenomenon of megacities, which are broadly defined as metropolitan areas with populations exceeding 10 million inhabitants. These mega-centers of human population are tied directly to increasing demands for energy and associated industrial activities that lead to accelerated stress and impacts on the environment. These impacts are significant and act on urban, regional and global scales. Air pollution has become one of the most important problems of megacities and has serious impacts on public health, visibility, and can cause heat island effects on the urban scale. On the regional scales, releases of aerosols and precursor gases can lead to regional haze and acidic deposition, as well as regional oxidant impacts. Release of longer lived greenhouse gases, aerosols, and other radiatively important species, including short-lived climate pollutants, from megacity sources will be significant contributions to climate change.
Participants in this session will present atmospheric science studies conducted in large urban centers around the world, highlighting the following areas: Emissions; Photochemistry; Aerosol and trace gas measurements; Meteorological measurements; Dynamics and radiative effects; Regional climate; Air quality modeling; Satellite remote sensing of air quality in cities; Implications of policy to reduce air pollution (air quality, health, climate change).
Solicited speakers:
Dr. Deon Terblanche, Director, WMO Atmospheric Research and Environment Branch, Geneva
(An overview of WMO activities related to megacities and urban complexes and perspectives on the challenges of megacities in the African region)
Dr. Sarath Guttikunda, UrbanEmissions.Info, New Delhi, India and Desert Research Institute, USA
(New developments and challenges in urban air quality management in Asian Cities)
Dr. Scott Herndon, Aerodyne Research, Inc., USA
(An overview of key emissions sources and ambient pollution characteristics from major cities in North America)
Field Campaigns
Cal-Mex 2010
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are planning a joint field study of atmospheric processes over California and the eastern Pacific coastal region in 2010. The goal of the program is to study in California the important issues at the nexus of the air quality and climate change problems in order to provide scientific information regarding the trade-offs faced by decision makers when addressing these two inter-related issues - hence the name CalNex 2010.
The Molina Center for Energy and the Environment is planning to coordinate a US-Mexico collaborative study during CalNex 2010 to investigate issues of mutual interest to the two countries along Mexico- California border region. This will involve deploying an experienced ground-based field measurement team aimed at characterizing the emissions from major sources in the California-Mexico border regions; determining the spatial and temporal variability in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and traditional air pollutants; and assessing possible impact of these emissions on local and regional air quality, human health and climate change.
MILAGRO - MCMA-2006
As part of the continuation of the·MCMA-2003 Campaign led by the Integrated Program on Urban, Regional and Global Air Pollution, the multi-national team of investigators plans to return to Mexico City in 2006 to provide ground-based MCMA fine particle and secondary aerosol precursor gas measurements in support·MILAGRO (Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations) Campaign, an unprecedented international effort to observe and quantify the fate of anthropogenic pollutants emitting from the world’s second largest city.· This field campaign will give the MCMA-2003 participants the unique opportunity to expand the MCMA data set with a complementary set of data taken ~3 years later.
MCMA-2003
In the Spring of 2003 (April 1-May 5), a multinational team of experts led by Luisa Molina of MIT conducted an intensive, five-week field campaign in the Mexico City Metropolitana Area (MCMA). The overall goal of the field measurement campaign in the MCMA is to contribute to the understanding of the air quality problem in megacities by conducting measurements and modeling studies of atmospheric pollutants in the MCMA. Such an understanding would help provide a scientific base for devising emissions control strategies to reduce exposure to harmful pollutants in the MCMA and also provide insights to air pollution problems in other megacities, including large urban centers in the US.
Overview
The Molina Center for Strategic Studies in Energy and the Environment (Centro Molina para Estudios Estratégicos sobre Energía y Medio Ambiente) is an independent and non-profit organization established in 2005 to bring together international experts in science and engineering, economics, social and political sciences to engage in collaborative research related to energy and environment, to contribute to decision-making in public and private sectors, and to contribute to the training of future leaders in energy and environment through research and education initiatives.
