Clean Air InitiativeforRio de Janeiro

With over 5 million inhabitants,Rio de Janeiro is a majorfinancial and industrial centre.World famous as a holiday spot,the city also hosts a very diversespread of manufacturing

industries: food, chemicals andpharmaceuticals, steel products, navalconstruction, textiles, furniture...This level ofactivity and thehigh traffic volumesit generates haveincreased airpollution in certainareas to criticallevels.

T he Clean Air Initiative forRio project reached itstarget on schedule in July

2004, when Renault and itsteam delivered to the city of Rioa suite of 3-dimensionalmodelling tools for simulatingair pollution concentrations inthe atmosphere, as an aid tocity environmental managers indefining their policy for airquality management.

“The tool allows 3D modelling –over an imaginary square box of60 by 60 km, with a ceiling of 4km – of the concentrations offour pollutants, hour by hour,over 24-hour episodes. Thepollutants are carbon monoxide(CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx),

High-resolution geographic datawere obtained through theInstituto Brasileiro de Geografia eEstatistica.Realistic 3D meteorologicalsequences were constructedcombining data from groundstations with large-scale weathermodels and regional MM5models.“Emission data collection can bevery difficult when input data arenot directly available. Forexample, estimates of the carfleet were hard to obtainbecause, in Brazil, a car ownerdoes not have to declare avehicle’s ‘retirement’ to theauthorities.” stresses PierreRouveirolles, the Renault trafficinventory expert in the project.When basic data wereunavailable, educated guesseshad to be made, and here theexperience of Citepa was quitevaluable. Questionnaires weresent to the area’s main industrialplants to gather criticalinformation on the nature andquantities of fuels used, thegeometry of stacks, etc...Innovative approaches were alsorequired for determiningemission factors for vehicles usinga mixture of gasoline and alcohol,since this type of fuel is notwidely used in Europe.

Many sources, many pollutants

Gathering data on pollution

Clean Air InitiativeforRio de Janeiro

Traffic engineering

An advanced traffic model was availablefor Ingérop to determine the flow ofvehicles and emissions in the heart of thecity. In peripheral areas where no trafficmodel was available, traffic densities wereestimated as a function of urban structure,building types and demographic growth.

WorkingtogetherAll the data andcomputer models formeteorology, traffic,emissions anddispersion are nowavailable for Rio’senvironmentalmanagers.

Trabalharjuntospara aqualidadedo ar enRio deJaneiro** Working togetherfor air quality in Riode Janeiro

A very detailed land-use description is usefulto represent ground to atmosphereexchanges and to spatially allocate surfaceemissions.

Meteorological models use nested domainsin order to capture the general continentalpicture as well as the details of sea breezesin the Rio area.

Road traffic, airports, ships, industrial plants:the emission inventory requires a very heavydata collection task.

Map of NOx emissions at ground level, atdaytime, in the Rio metropolitan area.

sulphur dioxide (SO2) andparticles. Average and worst casemeteorological episodes weresimulated in the suite.” explainsMartine Meyer, the air qualitytheme leader at Renault, andproject manager.

The team of French companiesformed under Renault’sleadership included ARIATechnologies, a R&D companyviewed as a European leader inair pollution technologies; Citepa(Centre Interprofessionnel

Technique d’Étude de la PollutionAtmosphérique), the Frenchreference body for nationalemission inventories; and Ingérop,a large engineering andconsultancy company developingtransportation projectsworldwide. A large share of theproject funding was brought inby the French Ministry of Financein support of French and Brazilianbilateral cooperation efforts.

The main keywords of the project– ‘working together’ – were

expressed in the combination ofBrazilian and French teams, and astrong focus on exchange ofinformation and technology. Theend user is the Secretaria do MeioAmbiente da Cidade (SMAC) ofthe City of Rio, led by AyrtonXerez, and the air pollutiongroup of Carmen Lucarini inparticular.

Close cooperation was alsoestablished with the UniversidadFederal de Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)and the scientific team managedby Professor Luiz Maïa. Similarly,the open cooperative work set upwith the Companhia deEngenharia de Tráfego (CET-Rio)and the Federaçao de Industriasde Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN) was

The ARIA Regional modellingtools used in the Clean Air forRio project comprised severalclasses of models.

• Emission models (EMMA,EMITRA) are designed tocompute emissions from pointsources (stacks), linear sources(roads) and area sources(counties).

• Meteorological models(MM5, MINERVE) computewind, temperature andturbulence on nested 3Dgrids. The atmosphere overthe Rio de Janeiro area is

represented in a largeimaginary computational boxof 60 by 60 km dimensions,with a 4 km altitude ceiling.

• A dispersion model (HERMES)computes the concentrationsof pollutants, hour by hour,over 24-hour episodes. Apowerful 3D graphics engine(EWB) displays the 2D/3Drepresentation of the airpollution fields.

Visualizing the concentration of atmospheric pollutants

A ‘chain’ of modelling tools

The pictures in thisframe representcoloured fields ofconcentrations drawnover the Rio deJaneiro metropolitanarea, for fourpollutants at 15pm.

At this time, the windblows from North;since SO2 emissionsare mainly related toindustrial sources theplume from theREDUC refinery isclearly visible on theSO2 plot.

The CO and NOx plotsat the same time,show a more complexpattern due to theinteraction betweenemissions from trafficand industrial sources.The maximumCO/NOxconcentrations occurover Rio Norte, thecity centre andNiteroi, where trafficemissions are at amaximum.

The PM plot shows adifferent mix ofindustrial and trafficsources, with a clearsignature of industrialplumes around thecity.

This exampledemonstrates that airpollution over the cityof Rio are neithersimple norhomogeneous forvarious pollutants,and that thiscomplexity must betaken into accountwhen designingcountermeasures.

“With this study, it is possible to improve the urbanplanning process in our city”

Ayrton Xerez, Secretary for the Environment of the City of Rio de Janeiro

Training the futurepollution managers of RioSeveral weeks of joint work on training,both for methodology and hands-oncomputer model applications were held.Sessions were attended by most air qualitystakeholders of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts asa teamExpertise is based onpartnership withactors havingworldwide experienceand recognition, andcapable of takingspecific local issuesinto account in datacollection andsurveys.Aria Technologies,Ingérop and Citepahave these skills. Theywere supported byAIRPARIF, the AirQuality ManagementBoard for Paris andRégion Ile-de-France.

CO 15:00 NOx 15:00

SO2 15:00 PM 15:00

key to having an efficient workplan. In all, the construction ofthe model required 18 months ofintensive work.

“The main challenge was not indeveloping the softwareprogrammes. These were existingtools developed by ARIATechnologies and other scientificlaboratories and had already beenimplemented in other cities andregions. No, the main difficultywas in gathering all the required‘input data’: emissions from allsectors (road transportation,maritime transport, airports,industries...), meteorological data,topography and land use”, MarcChiappero, delegate of Renault’sR&D division in Brazil, emphasizes.

Thanks to this patient process ofdata collection, the modellingtool can now simulate short-termemissions and concentrations, andperform long-term projections.

“The city of Rio wanted amodelling tool for objectivelyestimating the evolution of airquality up to 2010 in a ‘businessas usual’ scenario. The same toolhad to show the effect of somekey decisions on air quality. Tothis end, we had to add a numberof hypotheses into the modelsuch as demographic trends, salesof fuels and the use of differentenergy sources”, Martine Meyerclarifies. In co-sponsoring thisproject — integrated in theframework of the Clean Air

Initiative in Latin America Cities, acontinent-wide effort driven bythe World Bank, — and byinvesting key experts in itsmanagement, Renault wanted tomake a substantial contributionto the search for sustainabledevelopment strategies, in acountry where the company isnow deeply rooted.

With a hope. The hope that the‘Cidade Maravilhosa’ will soon benot only one of the mostbeautiful cities on Earth, but alsoone with the cleanest air.

Five scenarios to modifyemissions in 2010 were studied:• tighter regulations for

industrial emissions, bringinglevels close to Europeanstandards;

• enewal of car fleet, much ofRio’s fleet is more than 9years old with much higheremissions than modern ones;

• mprovement of fuelcomposition, with reducedsulphur content;

• wo scenarios based onimproved supply and demandin transportation (publictransportation with cleanbuses, multi-modaltransportation).

The simulations showed that thefirst two scenarios are mostlikely to induce an improvementin the air quality situation in2010. Martine Meyer, Renault,points out: “If the city of Rioapplied regulations on industrialemissions similar to those wehave in Europe, the SO2emissions would be divided by afactor of two”. Similarly, theconcentration levels for CO –which is 95% emitted by roadtransportation –would also dropby 50% if all vehicles older than9 years were replaced by newvehicles.

A decision-making tool

Scenarios for Rio de Janeiro 2010

Concentrations are computed on a large set of target points for allemission reduction scenarios. Overall reductions for four key pollutants(CO, NOx, PM, SO2) are compared.

S3 - Improved transportation system: changes in CO

The uneven spatialdistribution of thebenefits of emissionabatement is shownon the map: greenand blue areas showsignificantreductions in CO,and yellow to redareas visibleincreases in areaswhere higher trafficvolumes areforeseen.

S7 - Improved industrial emissions: changes in SO2

A generalimprovement inSO2 concentration –only green and bluecodes – for theindustrial emissionabatement strategy.The improvement islocalized downwindmajor industrialsources.

Work in progressWith the project having produced acomplete chain of computer models torepresent air pollution over the Rio deJaneiro area, the system is now up andrunning. It can be improved throughcontinuous upgrades in the precision,quality and completeness of the emissionsinventory. Indeed, some simplifications wereaccepted at project definition stage, so as tocover the scope of work in a prescribed timeframe: volatile organic compounds (VOC)were omitted from the emissions inventoryand no chemical reactions were consideredin the dispersion modelling.

Disseminationof results

Exchange ofinformation

was facilitatedthrough two large

internationalconferences in Rio

where experts fromthe Americas and

Europe could sharetheir experiences and

discuss results.

Overall percentage changes in air pollution

It is now clear that a completechain of computer models —covering meteorology, traffic,

emissions and dispersion — torepresent air pollution over theRio de Janeiro area is feasible. Theenvironmental managers of Riohave the models and all the datacollected and produced during theproject.The project team believes that thenext challenge is the continuous

operation of a forecastingmodelling system, providing adaily forecast of urbanmeteorology and air pollution forRio, accessible to the public on theWeb.

How could the project be extended andcompleted?

Daily operation of the traffic simulationmodelThe traffic simulation software used by Ingéropcould be permanently installed with the City ofRio teams, to explore new traffic scenarios. Thedirect link with existing traffic measurements, thedefinition of automatic data exchanges betweenCET-Rio and SMAC, would need to beimplemented.

Completing the emissions inventoryThis work uses the same data structure as thecurrent inventory and introduces a fulldescription of volatile organic compounds (VOC)emissions. A detailed representation of VOC isneeded to understand the precursors in theozone formation process, and would be providedfor the vehicles and bio-fuels used in Rio. Theanalysis of VOC emitted by forests andagriculture is also necessary.

High-resolution air pollution forecastingmaps with the CHIMERE reactive modelThe online operation of the sequence ofmeteorological and dispersion models, in non-reactive mode, is possible today. Once theemissions inventory is completed with a detaileddescription of the VOC contributing to ozoneformation, it is possible to configure theoperation of the CHIMERE photochemicalreactive model, in order to compute detailedozone and nitrogen oxide values. Thisdevelopment would fill an important gap in thecurrent approach because ozone production isparticularly important in the warm and sunnyclimate of Rio.

The key result of this extension would be anoperational high-resolution meteorologicaland air pollution forecast system for Rio deJaneiro, similar to the systems used in Paris(www.esmeralda-web.fr) and many otherEuropean cities.

More pollutants, better predictions…

To be continued

Clean Air Initiative:What’s Next? A success story to be repeated in other

(mega-)cities

The results of such projects are subject to very specific conditions: thewhole approach calls the proficiencies of all partners into play. Thesemust include sharp and comprehensive technical skills such as scientificknowledge in air quality and chemical modelling, traffic engineering,car fleet and vehicle emissions analysis, as well as communication andpublic relations skills.

Renault has a set of experts able to drive this kind of project and isused to adapting to international contexts, whilst the technical skillsbelong to Aria Technologies, Ingérop and Citepa. Nevertheless, theprogress of the project largely depends on the tight cohesion of theteam and Renault’s coordination.

• The availability of basic information to build reliable assumptions isessential and external additional expertise is required to specifyuseful model input data at any step of the project.

• A strong political will and the involvement and support of keypolitical figures in the city are essential for reaching the projecttarget.

• Institutions at the local, regional, federal and national level areimpacted by the project. Each of them has to play its role in orderto complete the project and focus on one single target: air qualitymonitoring and forecasting.

• IFinancing programs and banking corporations for developmentand international cooperation have to be canvassed to join theconsortium.

In similar conditions, this know-how and team synergy could beexported to other megacities around the world.

RREENNAAUULLTT

Martine MEYERAir Quality Thematic LeaderTCR LAB 2 501 Avenue du Golf78288 Guyancourt cedexFRANCETel: 01 34 95 47 36Fax: 01 34 95 05 91E-mail: martine.meyer@renault.comWebsite: www.renault.com

Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de JaneiroSecretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente - SMAC

Rosa Maria Orlando Fernandes da SilvaSecretária Municipal de Meio AmbienteRua Afonso Cavalcanti, 455 / Sala 1201Cidade NovaTel: 2503-2977/ 2503-3709Website: www.rio.rj.gov.br/smac

DREE

Stephan DUBOSTHead of Construction, Transportation andEnvironmentFrench Economic Mission in Sao PauloRua Marina Cintra, 94 - Jardim Europa01446-060 Sao Paulo - SP - BRAZILTel: +55 11 3063 3622 - Extension 213Fax: +55 11 3063 3811E-mail: stephan.dubost@missioneco.org Website: www.missioneco.org/bresil

ARIA Technologies SA

Jacques MOUSSAFIRPresident & CEO

17, Route de la Reine92517 Boulogne-Billancourt Cedex

FRANCETel: 33 (0)1 55 19 99 76 Fax: 33 (0)1 55 19 99 62

E-mail: jmoussafir@aria.fr Website: www.aria.fr

CITEPA

Nadine ALLEMANDIndustrial Emissions Expert

7, Cité Paradis75010 Paris

FRANCETel: 33 (0)1 44 83 68 83 Fax: 33 (0)1 40 22 04 83

E-mail: nadine.allemand@citepa.orgWebsite: www.citepa.org

INGEROP

Gilbert MORIOSenior Traffic Expert

168/172 bd de Verdun92408 Courbevoie Cedex

FRANCETel: 33 (0)1 49 04 55 00

Fax: 33 (0)1 49 04 57 01E-mail: gilbert.morio@ingerop.com

Website: www.ingerop.com