Materials and MethodsMaterials and Methods

Number of monitoring sites and Number of monitoring sites and area types overall Egyptarea types overall Egypt

Area typeCairoAlex.Delta and

CanalUpper Egypt

SinaiTotal

Industrial333211

Urban11349

Residential422210

Street/road33

Regional/backr.

1113

Mixed areas21216

Total148109142

Instruments and measurements techniques used in the air quality monitoring network

PollutantsSO2NO/NO2PM10COO3

Concentration Units

(µg/m3)(µg/m3)(µg/m3)(mg/m3)(µg/m3)

Measurement technique

Pulsed UV-Flourescens

Chemiluminescence

Tapered Filter element

oscillating mocrobalance

Gas Filter correlation (Infrared

Absorption)

UV- Photometric Absorption

Instrument typeThermo

Environmental (TEI) M 43 C

Thermo Environmental (TEI)

M 42 C

Beta gauge Ambient

particulate monitor

TEI M 48 CTEI M49 C

Air Quality Monitoring NetworkA full description of the selected monitoring sites

(8 sites) used in the study • Shoubra El Kheima

• Area description Highly industrial, very

polluted, several small smelters and

various industries.

• Local Sources Lead smelters to the west,

north and east of the school, within a few

hundred meters.

• Representativity Very polluted industrial

area.

• Data show the impact of industries on the

building.

• Paramters measuredSO2, NO2, TSP, PM10

Abbassyia site

• Description Regional residential area

normally up-wind from Cairo city

center, but down-wind from the

Shoubra industrial area and Shoubra

urban area.

• Local Sources: No immediate local

sources, but regionally exposed.

• Representativity: Regional urban

area.

• Paramters measuredSO2, NO2, O3 and

Meteorology Measurement

Qulaly site

• Area description: Urban center with

dense traffic on the street coming from

shoubra and crossing streets into Al

Qulaly and to Ramses Station.

• Local Sources: The area is expected to

be highly polluted from traffic in the

main railway station area of Cairo. There

are small industries north of the site and

the whole Shoubra area is located

upwind in prevailing wind direction.

• Representativity: urban central part of

Cairo.

• Paramters measuredSO2, NO2, PM10,

TSP, and VOC.Measurement

El Gomhoria site description • Description: Street canyon in

urban area with heavy traffic.• Local Sources: Mainly traffic in

the general area and around Ramses square (about 300m from the site). Heavy traffic on Gomhoryia street just under the sampler intake.

• Representativity: Representative for street canyons in central Cairo.

• Paramters measured SO2, NO2, CO, PM10

Fum El Khalig site description• Description: Urban center

roadside monitoring station with dense traffic on the streets on both sides of the site.

• Local Sources: The area is expected to be highly polluted from traffic

• Representativity: Representative for the urban central part of Cairo and specifically near two main roads.

• Paramters measured SO2, NO2, CO

Maadi Site description• Description: Residential • Local Sources: Mainly Traffic and general

activities of people.• Representativity: Typical for western Maadi area,

near street surrounded by tall trees (slightly more traffic impacted than inside residential Maadi).

• Paramters measured SO2, NO2

Tabbin Site description• Area description: Industrial,

polluted from several cement factories and others north of the site, and smelters and chemical industries to the south.

• Local Sources Smelters, steel and iron factories, coke factory within 1 Km to the south, cement factories in the sector north-west to north-east.

• Representativity: Very polluted industrial area.

• Data is showing the impact of industries on the building.

• Paramters measuredSO2, NO2, TSP, PM10 dustfall and meteorology Measurement.

10th of Ramadan site description• Area description: Some smaller industries 1-km to

the north (upwind). Some industries to the west, but the major industries park is located to the south and south east; 2-3 km away.

• Not expected to be a polluted area. • Representativity: Residential area.• Paramters measured: SO2, NO2 and PM10 and

dustfall.

10 Ramadan station

Dispersion Model Description POLAIR

• The POLAIR modeling has the fuctionality to simulate

the atmospheric dispersion of gaseous polluting

agents and fine particles from diverse sources. With

the help of mathematical equations,

• POLAIR can help study the impact of emissions in

zones subject to atmospheric pollution.

• The results are easily interpreted with graphical views

depicitng color graded graphs.

Input, output and validation of dispersion model

Plume’s superelevation models

Three models are availble to estimate the concentration

by dispersion modeling

• The U.S. Environmental protection Agency (EPA)’s

superelevation model;

• Holland’s superelevation model;

• Communauté Urbaine de Montréal’s (CUM) regulatory

superelevation model.

• For the majority of study case scenarios, it is highly

recommended to use the regulatory EPA model. It takes

into account each of the varaibles for the plume’s

superelevation and better represents reality.

Plume’s atmospheric dispersion model

Gaussian model and associated parametersThe Gaussian model is the most used in the world to study

dispersion phenomena. This model estimates the pollutants’s

concentration in spatial points while taking into account the

following factors: the emission’s characteristics, the receiving

environment and the meteorolgical conditions.

Interface and menus

Compound under studyPOLAIR model offers a database on physical, chemical and

toxicological properties. The avaiable information is as follows:

• Name of chemical compound;

• Chemical formula;

• Molecular weight;

• Terminal velocity (can be used at 0m/s as the majority of gases

have a density similar to air. This is not the case for particles and

heavy metals);

• Thershold of smell preception;

• Inferior limits for explosion and flammability;

• Toxcity threshold;

• Concentrations profile.

Types of simulation

• Simulation results can be shown in results in several types of data presentations. The types of simulation can be seen in the results are as follows:

• With maxima – First hourly maximum;– Second hourly maximum;– Mean concentration on 2h, 4h, 8h and 24

hours.

• Perecentages of threstholds;• Hourly arithmetic mean concentration.

Simulation with threshold overshoot

• The simulation with threshold overshoot indicate

in percentage, the proportions of calculated

values that have exceeded the set threshold of

concentration. In accordance to the receiving

point. The threshold was set according to the

maximum permissible values in indicated in the

Egyptain Environmental law no. 4/1994.

Passive and hand held samplers

• Passive samplers have been used

for Model verfication along different

distances (200m – 2000 m) for some

of the monitoring sites (Tabbin-

Maadi –Qualaly and Abassyia).

• Passive samplers is used for

surveillance of time integrated SO2

and NO2 concentration distributions.

• They have been analyzed in the

laboratory after exposure in the field

for typically one week.

Results and DiscussionResults and Discussion

POLAIR dispersion model performance results for SO2 concentrations prediction using national monitoring

stations network in Greater Cairo during 2004

Monitoring sites

No. of OBS.

Mean Calculated

(µg/m3)

Mean Observed (µg/m3)

Ratio of means

Calc/Obs

Mean error

(µg/m3)

Normalized mean error

%

Fractional error %

Correlation coefficient, r2

Shoubra875945.268.00.661.5050.450.730.96

Abassyia865522.226.60.830.1216.550.150.86

Qualaly875686.365.91.30.5830.926.800.87

Gomohria869841.534.11.20.2021.757.140.56

Maadi876441.733.31.250.7025.250.400.71

10th of Ramadan

87804.75.11.080.0317.859.100.73

Distribution of annual mean SO2 concentrations in µg/m3

calculated with POLAIR dispersion model using (2004) SO2

concentrations from the national monitoring network at Abassyia site

Distribution of SO2 concentrations over shooting (150 µg/m3

per 24 hours) calculated with POLAIR dispersion model using (2004) SO2 concentrations from the national

monitoring network at Abassyia site

Distribution of SO2 concentrations over shooting (150 µg/m3

per 24 hours) calculated with POLAIR dispersion model using (2004) SO2 concentrations from the national

monitoring network at Qualaly site

Annual mean SO2: observations versus predictions at some monitoring sites in Greater

Cairo during 2004

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0

Maadi Gomohria Qulaly Abassyia Shoubra Elkemia 10th Ramadan

Monitoring sites

SO

2 co

nce

ntr

atio

n(µ

g/m

3)

Observed concentration(µg/m3)

Predicted concentration(µg/m3)