Cities are hotspots for emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases from traffic, industry, household energy use, and other human activities. Many urban emissions originate indoors (e.g. cooking, heating, solvent use) before entering the outdoor atmosphere, while outdoor pollution infiltrates indoor environments where people spend most of their time. Indoor–outdoor exchange processes, together with urban meteorology and city geometry, influence pollutant concentrations, chemical transformations, human exposure, and urban carbon budgets. Air pollution impacts may be cumulative or episodic, and can be exacerbated during heat waves, while greenhouse gases are often co-emitted with air pollutants, making cities both major drivers of climate change and focal points of climate-related health impacts.
This session brings together researchers working on urban air quality, greenhouse gases, and the indoor–outdoor air pollution interface. We invite contributions on urban air pollution, heat stress, urban carbon budgets, indoor and outdoor emission sources, indoor–outdoor exchange processes, and air pollution impacts on health. Topics include sensor networks, personal monitoring, airborne observations, high-resolution modelling and downscaling, source apportionment and isotopic attribution, ambient and indoor atmospheric chemical processes, biogenic and anthropogenic precursors to secondary pollution formation, community and personal exposure quantification, allergens, and air pollution and climate-related health effects.
Martine Van Poppel, Werner Leo Kutsch