Toolkit › Models and methods › Air pollution models

CAR-International

Submitted by cdh30 on Fri, 2010-11-26 16:16
Tags: -> 919

The CAR-International model (Calculation of Pollution from Road Traffic, international version) developed in the Netherlands is a Gaussion-based screening model.

Model description
Purpose: 

CaCSCAR has been developed  Car has been developed to estimate air pollution levels around city streets

Boundaries: 

Field of model: Outdoor Air

Spatial: Car calculates kerb level estimates

Temporal:  Annual percentile values and average concentrations

Pollutants covered: non-reactive pollutants and NO2

Source types of emissions: Traffic only

Input: 

Annual average traffic density

Vehicle distribution and speed

Emission factors for 4 categories of traffic speed:

  1. motorways
  2. other roads around city
  3. 'normal' city traffic
  4. stagnating city traffic
Output: 

Pollutant concentrations at kerbside (between 5 and 30m away from the road).

Rationale: 

CAR is a spreadsheet-based model, providing estimates of air pollutant concentrations, primarily on the basis of empirically derived statistical relationships between measured pollution and source/environmental factors.  It was initially developed in the Netherlands, where it has been widely tested and used as a screening tool for air quality management purposes.  The models were subsequently adapted to provide an 'international version, whuch was designed to be more widely applicable.