Modelling and visualization of air quality impacts of transport schemes: a decision-support system for air quality-related transport planning

This book introduces three main elements to model and visualize the air quality impacts of transport schemes. The first are novel automatic collection and processing algorithms for traffic flow and geospatial data for input to air pollution models of transport schemes under analysis. The second is a novel strategy to improve the modeling of air quality by the calibration of input background air pollution concentrations. The third is a novel 3D air pollution dispersion interface for the 3D visualization of the air quality predictions in 3D digital city models. The automation of input data collection and processing reduces significantly the time and effort required to set up the air pollution model. The calibration of background concentrations significantly improves the accuracy of, not only the annual mean, but also the hourly, air quality predictions and effectively reduces the model runtime. The 3D air pollution dispersion interface provides an intuitive 3D visualization of the air quality predictions at and above the ground surface in a single 3D virtual scene. Also, the book explains how to alter the design of a transport scheme to achieve certain air quality objectives.