Leila Droprinchinski Martins

Vehicular particulate matter emissions in road tunnels in Sao Paulo, Brazil

In the metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil, ozone and particulate matter (PM) are the air pollutants that pose the greatest threat to air quality, since the PM and the ozone precursors (nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds) are the main source of air pollution from vehicular emissions. Vehicular emissions can be measured inside road tunnels, and those measurements can provide information about emission factors of in-use vehicles. Emission factors are used to estimate vehicular emissions and are described as the amount of species emitted per vehicle distance driven or per volume of fuel consumed. This study presents emission factor data for fine particles, coarse particles, inhalable particulate matter and black carbon, as well as size distribution data for inhalable particulate matter, as measured in March and May of 2004, respectively, in the Jânio Quadros and Maria Maluf road tunnels, both located in São Paulo. The Jânio Quadros tunnel carries mainly light-duty vehicles, whereas the Maria Maluf tunnel carries light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. In the Jânio Quadros tunnel, the estimated light-duty vehicle emission factors for the trace elements copper and bromine were 261 and 220xa0μg km−1, respectively, and 16, 197, 127 and 92xa0mg km−1, respectively, for black carbon, inhalable particulate matter, coarse particles and fine particles. The mean contribution of heavy-duty vehicles to the emissions of black carbon, inhalable particulate matter, coarse particles and fine particles was, respectively 29, 4, 6 and 6 times higher than that of light-duty vehicles. The inhalable particulate matter emission factor for heavy-duty vehicles was 1.2 times higher than that found during dynamometer testing. In general, the particle emissions in São Paulo tunnels are higher than those found in other cities of the world.

Potential health impact of ultrafine particles under clean and polluted urban atmospheric conditions: a model-based study

The main goal of this study was to improve the knowledge of ultrafine particle number distributions in large urban areas and also to call the attention to the importance of these particles on assessing health risks. Measurements of aerosol size distributions were performed during 2xa0weeks, with distinct pollutant concentrations (polluted and clean periods), on the rooftop of a building located in downtown of the megacity of São Paulo, Brazil. CO, NO2, PM10, SO2, and O3 concentrations and meteorological variables were also used. Aerosol size distribution measurements showed that geometric mean diameters of the size spectra in the polluted period are on average considerably larger than those in the clean one. Besides the fact that total number of ultrafine particles did not show significant differences, during the polluted period, geometric mean diameter was larger than during the clean one. The results of a mathematical model of particle deposition on human respiratory tract indicated a more significant effect of smaller particles fraction of the spectra, which predominate under clean atmospheric conditions. The results also indicated that urban environmental conditions usually considered good for air quality, under the criteria of low mass concentration, do not properly serve as air quality standard to very small particles. In the size range of ultrafine particles, this traditional clean atmospheric condition can offer a strong risk to pulmonary hazards, since the cleansing of the atmosphere creates good conditions to increase the concentration of nucleation mode particles.

Ambiental volatile organic compounds in the megacity of São Paulo

In order to characterize the composition of the main urban air organic compounds in the megacity of Sao Paulo, analysis of samples collected during the winter of 2003 downtown was carried out. The samplings were performed on the roof of a building in the commercial center of Sao Paulo. Hydrocarbons and carbonyls compounds were collected on August 4, 5 and 6. Comparing to previous data, the concentration of hydrocarbons presented no decrease in the concentration, except for the aldehydes, which decreased when compared to previous data. Among the HCs species analyzed, the highest concentrations observed were those of toluene (7.5 ± 3.4 ppbv), n-decane (3.2 ± 2.0 ppbv), benzene (2.7 ± 1.4 ppbv) and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene (2.2 ± 1.5 ppbv).

Emission Scenario Assessment of Gasohol Reformulation Proposals and Ethanol Use in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo

The frequent episodes of high concentrations of ozone and of inhalable particulate matter occurring in the Met- ropolitan Area of Sao Paulo (MASP) are primarily associated with vehicle emissions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the use of reformulations of the gasoline-ethanol blend known as gasohol and of ethanol on the ozone formation. A three-dimensional photochemical model was employed to estimate the sensitivity of ozone and evalu- ate the implementation of emission scenarios, considering various fuel formulations, in the MASP. The base case ozone concentrations were consistent with the observations over six air quality monitoring stations located in the MASP, sug- gesting that the model can be used to evaluate the impact that various emission scenarios would have on ozone levels. Six scenarios were analyzed; scenarios 1 to 5 involved reductions in compounds found in gasohol in various proportions com- pared with the base emission inventory and scenario 6 specified that the entire light duty fleet would burn pure ethanol. In scenario 3 (reductions in olefins, aromatics and benzene) and scenario 5 (reductions in the five species that are associated with higher ozone sensitivity), ozone concentrations were below the national standard only at the air quality monitoring stations (not domain-wide). Our results suggest that implementing scenario 6 would improve air quality in the MASP. The vehicle fleet in the MASP is unique in that ethanol is used as a fuel on a large scale: 14.5% of the vehicles run on hydrated ethanol (95%v/v); and 69.5% run on a mixture con- taining 75-78% gasoline and 22-25% anhydrous ethanol, which is referred to as gasohol. Therefore, ethanol accounts for approximately 34% of the fuel burned by the fleet in the MASP. Motorcycles and heavy-duty vehicles constitute ap- proximately 9.3% and 5.8% of the fleet, respectively (6). Flex-fuel vehicles (running on either gasohol or ethanol) and

URBAN HEAT ISLAND (UHI) SIMULATIONS IN THE NORTH REGION OF PARANA STATE, BRAZIL

Este trabalho teve como objetivo estudar a ilha de calor urbana (ICU) na regiao Norte do Parana e a influencia do uso do solo, incluindo especialmente ambientes urbanos, na intensidade e frequencia de ocorrencia desses eventos. Duas simulacoes foram feitas com o modelo WRF/Chem com diferentes arquivos de uso do solo (arquivo original e da base de dados do Landsat). As simulacoes representaram bem os dados observados com correlacoes superiores a 0,92 para a regiao de Londrina. A simulacao com o uso do solo do Landsat representou melhor as ilhas de calor urbanas (ICU) e o gradiente de temperatura foixa0bem evidenciado. O modelo subestimou os valores maximos e superestimou os minimos comparando com os dados observados nas duas simulacoes.

Situação atual da qualidade do ar das principais cidades da América Latina

In this paper was done the compilation of Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations for the largest cities in Latin America, with over 1 million inhabitants in order to investigate the air quality situation in this region. For this study were obtained data from 28 cities of 13 countries from the World Health Organization reports (WHO), government agencies and monitoring stations. The results shows that, in most cities, the levels established by WHO guidelines, both PM10 and PM2.5, are exceeded, providing conditions that threaten the public health of citizens.

ANÁLISE DA SAZONALIDADE E DA TENDÊNCIA DE LONGO PRAZO NA VAZÃO DOS PRINCIPAIS TRIBUTÁRIOS DO RIO PARANÁ LOCALIZADOS NO SUL-SUDESTE DO BRASIL

This study analyzed streamflow series for the major left side tributaries of the Parana River in Brazil. The results suggest that there is agreement regarding the increase in the flow of the rivers analyzed, but increasing rates are not uniform and there are different trends among the rivers when monthly averages maximum and minimum streamflow are considered.

EVENTOS EXTREMOS DE PRECIPITAÇÃO NO ESTADO DO PARANÁ

Este estudo analisa o comportamento da precipitacao no Estado do Parana, atraves de metodos estatisticos para eventos extremos e ferramentas de SIG. Identificaram-se regioes mais vulneraveis a precipitacoes intensas, como o sudoeste do Estado, que apresentou chuvas intensas, recorrencia de extremos anuais e tendencia de aumento de extremos.

VARIABILIDADE DAS CONCENTRAÇÕES DO O3 TROPOSFÉRICO: DADOS DE SUPERFÍCIE E SONDAGENS MEDIDOS DURANTE A CAMPANHA .PRIMAVERA DE O3. EM 2006

Variabilidade das concentracoes do O3 troposferico: dadosde superficie e sondagens medidos durante a campanhax93Primavera de O3x94 em 2006

EFFECTS OF SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS FROM TWO DISTINCT POLLUTED ENVIRONMENTS ON DRY DEPOSITION OF ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS

Resumo Um modelo matematico simples foi utilizado para estudar o efeito da distribuicao de tamanho das particulas sobre a eficiencia de remocao por deposicao seca. Para esta finalidade foram utilizadas duas distribuicoes de tamanho de aerossois, tipicas de ambientes poluidos: uma distribuicao de ambiente de queimada (Amazonia) e outra de ambiente urbano (Sao Paulo). Os resultados mostraram que particulas originarias de ambiente urbano sao mais eficientemente removidas por deposicao seca do que particulas de queimada. Este comportamento esta associado ao fato de que a natureza de remocao das particulas por deposicao seca e pouco eficiente para diâmetros entre 0,1 e 1,0 mm, dominio em que se concentra a maior parte das particulas de queimada. Esse mecanismo diferencial de deposicao e o que explica o maior efeito deleterio das particulas ultra-finas no sistema respiratorio humano.