Transferability of an approach to calibrate background air pollution concentrations

The aim of this research paper is to investigate the transferability of an approach to calibrate background air pollution concentrations for improving the accuracy of air pollution modelling results. Using the central area of the City of Nottingham in the UK as a case study, an air pollution model in ADMS-Roads was created for investigating the applicability of this approach to a study area different from the one that was used in the initial development of this approach. The iterative application of this approach to the input background concentrations effectively reduced the error between the annual mean, and the hourly, calculated and monitored air pollution concentrations. This confirmed the transferability of this approach to the Nottingham City Centre study area. A mathematical algorithm was developed, and implemented by computer programming, to improve further the effectiveness of this approach. The application of this algorithm to the calibrated background concentrations reduced further the error between the hourly calculated and monitored air pollution concentrations.