CFD MODELING FOR PREDICTION OF NOX DISPERSION IN A STREET WITH ACTIVE PUBLIC URBAN INTERVENTION IN MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA

Abstract

The Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region suffers from persistent inequality, climate change vulnerability and persistent air quality problems. The Aburrá Valley, Medellín located in Colombia is a narrow tropical valley with strong thermal inversion and unstable atmospheric conditions. In addition, local air pollutant concentration is strongly associated with Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) variability. It is common to have in Medellín air quality episodes mainly exacerbated by prolonged absence of precipitation. Although air pollution control strategies aimed at improving air quality have been recently implemented by the municipality of Medellín, values of NO2 concentration remain unaltered during the last 8 years with values close to critical values. The present study analyzed a sensitive street in Medellín that has been subjected to recent public urban interventions with the construction of new public spaces and buildings without considering the effect of NO2 concentration in planning such interventions. Therefore, it is expected to currently have areas in the urban area of Medellín with unhealthy NO2 concentrations. This work address this problem by selecting an area of study in order to consider recent urban interventions conducted by the University of Antioquia including new pedestrian areas in the context of NOx dispersion using CFD analysis. The numerical results allow the identification of low wind speed zones where NOx dispersion is also modeled.