Title: Effect of land use changes on air quality: impacts of urbanization, urban vegetation, and agriculture / Urbanization converts natural landscapes into impervious surfaces, altering local climate and air quality. Greening strategies are adopted to mitigate these effects, yet their effectiveness depends on land use, urban form, geography, and climate interactions.
On 4th June, Qing Luo presented her work at the Urban Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Seminar, focusing on the role of greenery in reducing CO2 emissions. The monthly seminar series, hosted by Penn State's Earth-Atmosphere Interactions Lab(USA), aims to foster knowledge exchange and promote international collaboration on the GHG monitoring and estimation.
Title: Modeling air quality at urban scale in the city of Barcelona: A matter of green resolution/ This paper presents the behavior of the most common pollutants and how they are dispersed as a result of different meteorological conditions in the city of Barcelona, as well as the impact of green infrastructures on urban morphology.
Between May 9th and 11th, 2023, the European WRF-Chem Workshop has taken place in the Italian city of Lecce, in which the URBAG group participated. The URBAG researcher Alba Badia shared her work related to the atmospheric and chemical transport model Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry to the workshop participants.
Title: Modelling the impacts of emission changes on O3 sensitivity, atmospheric oxidation capacity, and pollution transport over the Catalonia region / Tropospheric ozone (O3) is an important surface pollutant in urban areas, and it has complex formation mechanisms that depend on the atmospheric chemistry and on meteorological factors. The severe reductions observed in anthropogenic emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic can further our understanding of the photochemical mechanisms leading to O3 formation.
The main goal of this PhD position is to assess the impacts of green infrastructure to reduce GHG in urban areas. To achieve this, the candidate will work with the Weather and Research Forecasting model (WRF) coupled with chemical transport (WRF-Chem) with the GHG tracer option called WRF-GHG coupled to the UCM BEP+BEM (Building Effect Parameterization coupled with Building Energy Model). The PhD position is funded by the LaCaixa INPhINIT doctoral fellowships offered through the doctoral programme of ICTA-UAB
The atmospheric modeling research group at URBAG is offering two Master's theses for the January-September 2023 period. This offer will give you the opportunity to start working in the scientific field with colleagues from diverse backgrounds. Case study: Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and Greater Oslo Region