| 2. |
Characteristics and Forms of the
Urban Climate . |
||
|
|||
.
|
2.8 Pollutant
Emissions
Every day in cities large quantities of pollutants are released into the atmosphere from traffic, home heating, industries, and power plants. Due to the enormous multiplicity of these substances it has proven appropriate to study closer five main components, which as "indicative components" have importance for an entire region. These components are:
Due to the global aspects of climate change, carbon dioxide emissions (see Chapter 2.12) have for years also been taken into consideration. Figure 2/13a shows the emitted quantities for various groups of sources in Stuttgart (2004), while the development of pollutant emissions in Stuttgart since 1985 is depicted in Figure 2/13b. The prevailing influence of traffic on emissions is particularly clear in the case of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and organic compounds. Next to the atmospheric altitude attained by emissions, the deciding factor for air pollution is the spatial distribution of emission sources throughout the urban area. Figure 2/14 shows an example of the nitrogen oxide emissions in the area of the region of Stuttgart. Easily recognizable are the quadrants with high emissions in the area of highways and near individual sources such as powerplants and heating centers. Depending on the pollutant component and the type of source, emissions are not distributed evenly across the year. For example, the heating-produced pollutant sulfur dioxide exhibits a noticeable yearly variation. With nitrogen oxides the yearly variation is relatively small in traffic-produced emissions but is clearly present in other groups of sources. |
| . | |
| . . |
|
|
|||
| . | |||
|
|
|||
| Fig. 2/13b: Development of pollutant emissions in Stuttgart since 1985; MINISTERIUM FÜR UMWELT UND VERKEHR B-W, 2004 | |||
| . | |||
|
|
|||
|
Fig. 2/14: Spatial distribution
of nitrogen dioxide in the region of Stuttgart (2004) in tons/year;
LUBW, Klimaatlas Region Stuttgart (2007) |
|||
|
