Last Updated - November 23, 2016
Air modelling has become the new trend to assess the potential maximum concentration of particulate compounds based on sources and receptors. In Ontario, one reason I required this technology was for Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECAs). They used to be called Certificate of Approvals (CofAs).
Air modelling has become the new trend to assess the potential maximum concentration of particulate compounds based on sources and receptors. In Ontario, one reason I required this technology was for Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECAs). They used to be called Certificate of Approvals (CofAs).
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| Drawing No. 1 |
The more complex approach is to use the AERMOD code provided free. Though the code is free, it possess no friendly user interface. That is why I often go to Lakes Environmental to purchase their interface for the code. They have made it easy for the user to input the required data including terrain, meteorological and so on to output a beautiful drawing. It is possible to view the building layout you have inputted in a three dimensional display.
The AERMOD program from Lakes Environmental (Lakes AERMOD) provides a easy to use interface that allows the user to rebuild a model of the area in question.
You can collect two (2) drawings which can be screen printed from Google Earth and place it into AERMOD through the base map system. Ensure you know the UTM Coordinates of two points on the drawing (i.e. two far corners) to place the drawing in the correct location (if you get a stretched drawing then it was not completed correctly). The first drawing should be a distant view that shows the site and the surrounding area with a minimum of 1 km radius. The second drawing is a closer view of the site showing details of the building. The drawings should be completed in this order or else the order of the drawings will need to be changed later.
Then the buildings within the site will need to be drawn, which can be carried out free hand by tracing the outlines from the second drawing inputted earlier. To complete the building. AERMOD will request a closed outline and the height of the building in either feet or meters.
Once the buildings have been completed, the next step would be to add the point or volume sources. AERMOD can only run for a single chemical/pollutant at one time, however, I recommend that if multiple chemicals/pollutants are to be processed that all the sources be allocated onto the model rendering. The sources will require the following information:
Maximum calculated concentration (g/s), temperature, source locations (UTM Coordinates), velocity (m/s) or volumetric flow rate (m3/s) of the output (i.e. from a stack or source).
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| Drawing No. 2. |
You can collect two (2) drawings which can be screen printed from Google Earth and place it into AERMOD through the base map system. Ensure you know the UTM Coordinates of two points on the drawing (i.e. two far corners) to place the drawing in the correct location (if you get a stretched drawing then it was not completed correctly). The first drawing should be a distant view that shows the site and the surrounding area with a minimum of 1 km radius. The second drawing is a closer view of the site showing details of the building. The drawings should be completed in this order or else the order of the drawings will need to be changed later.
Then the buildings within the site will need to be drawn, which can be carried out free hand by tracing the outlines from the second drawing inputted earlier. To complete the building. AERMOD will request a closed outline and the height of the building in either feet or meters.
Once the buildings have been completed, the next step would be to add the point or volume sources. AERMOD can only run for a single chemical/pollutant at one time, however, I recommend that if multiple chemicals/pollutants are to be processed that all the sources be allocated onto the model rendering. The sources will require the following information:
Maximum calculated concentration (g/s), temperature, source locations (UTM Coordinates), velocity (m/s) or volumetric flow rate (m3/s) of the output (i.e. from a stack or source).
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