Due to increasing issues of air pollution in urban areas continuous research is being
conducted to upgrade models, which can predict the distribution of pollutants and
thus enable timely interventions to mitigate their negative effects. To support these
efforts, traffic data from an integrated transport model was used to drive the COPERT
traffic emission model and the WRF-Chem atmospheric chemistry model. With reliable
macroscopic traffic data from the Budapest region, traffic state estimations were
calculated for every fifteen minutes of the day using dynamic assignment with predefined
and time-varying static demand matrices. Then the COPERT vehicular emission model
of average speeds was applied to provide the emission factors, so that the macroscopic
emissions for the traffic network could be calculated. As a next step the WRF-Chem
online coupled weather and atmospheric chemistry model was adapted to estimate atmospheric
dispersion of pollutants (CO, NOx, O3). The coupled models are presented in a 2-day
case study with qualitative comparison of obtained results with measurements. As a
result, it can be stated that combining macroscopic road traffic modeling with atmospheric
models can enhance the estimation efficiency of urban air pollution.
