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A state-of-the-art air pollution prediction program will be created, adapted to the specific characteristics of the municipality.

José Ballesta: "This agreement means providing a framework of excellence for the municipality's anti-pollution protocol, protecting, above all, people's health and providing it with a high level of trust and scientific rigor."

Through the protocol signed today, a total of eight pollutant measurement campaigns will be carried out in one year, establishing 50 measurement points: 25 fixed and 25 itinerant.

The mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta, the rector of the University of Murcia, José Luján, and the managing director of the municipal company Aguas y Saneamiento de Murcia (Emuasa), Rafael Gómez, signed today the action protocol for the development of a predictive model of air pollutants behavior, as well as the study and implementation of an air pollution network in the municipality.

"Murcia is at the forefront of Spain in the implementation of an effective anti-pollution protocol, which we will now optimize and expand with more means and new procedures, in the hands of a leading institution in scientific and research innovation such as the University of Murcia" , said José Ballesta, who added that “this agreement implies providing a framework of excellence for the municipality's anti-pollution protocol, protecting, above all, the health of people and providing it with a high level of trust and scientific rigor in terms of the measurements and the predictive model â€�.

For his part, the rector José Luján stressed that “this protocol of action between Emuasa, the City of Murcia and the UMU is a reflection of the work we do at the University, providing answers to the problems of our Region, putting at your service the Research of professionals who are national and international referents.

We are an institution open to society and involved in the problems of citizens, we will continue to maintain close ways of collaboration to provide solutions that improve the quality of life of our environment �.

Murcia will thus have a computerized program for predicting the latest generation of air pollution and adapted to the specific peculiarities of the municipality (which will take into account the sources of polluting particles, urban geometry and meteorology) and will collect the following parameters:

Traffic measurement points in the urban center: Information available in real time by the City of Murcia.

Geometries of the study area (with or without circulation of vehicles), consisting of streets, roundabouts, crossings, squares, gardens and other unique areas open to air movements.

Meteorological characteristics that influence the transport, dispersion and transformation of air pollutants in real time.

Through this agreement, a total of eight pollutant measurement campaigns will be carried out throughout this year, establishing 50 measurement points of which 25 will remain fixed and another 25 will change.

This action will provide a first information on the distribution of pollution in Murcia and will help to detect or interpret atypical situations.

After this first phase, the programming of a predictive model of air pollution will be carried out that will inform the levels of concentrations of polluting particles.

The tracer of the measurements will be benzene, but new equipment will be purchased for the measurement of other gaseous pollutants: nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2), ozone (O3), toluene and xylenes (BTX), PM10 and PM2.5, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), arsenic (AS), cadmium (Cd) and nickel (Ni).

UMU Health and Safety Research Group

The protocol signed today will also allow to define the most representative areas of the average pollution of the urban nucleus, for the implementation of the Atmospheric Monitoring Station equipped with the equipment for the collection and analysis of pollutants regulated by current legislation (Royal Decree 102/2011 ), as well as the meteorological sensors on which the transport, dispersion and transformation of air pollutants depends.

In this task, the City Council, which will finance the work, will be supported by the UMU Industrial Safety and Health Research Group, which has the means, personnel and experience to address air pollution studies, as well as the support of the technical and human resources of Aguas de Murcia.

Clean Air

This action is part of the Municipal Clean Air strategy, which is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, making environmental protection and sustainability a development vector, as the Social Council of Murcia has endorsed

The 'Clean Air' strategy of the City of Murcia includes actions such as the free pruning service to the huertanos to avoid agricultural burns, the gradual renewal of the bus fleet and the acquisition of new vehicles driven by biofuels, hybrids or electric, creation of deterrent car parks, periodic checks of the gas emissions of vehicles in circulation, together with the Ecological Patrol of the Local Police (more than 1,000 vehicles per year), pedestrianization of 250,000 m2 and 4 restricted traffic areas (267 streets), La Vía Verde, new network of bike lanes, Electric Vehicle strategy, 2030 Forest Plan and sustainable lighting, among other measures.

Car pollution, 'photochemical smog' and African air

Air pollution in Murcia, as in many Spanish and European cities, comes mainly from the emissions of vehicles that use fossil fuels, this aspect being the starting point for most studies of air pollution in urban centers .

However, two other origins also acquire importance in Murcia.

First, the frequent tropospheric photochemical phenomena in spring and early summer that give rise to reactive species, very irritating to the respiratory tract, with ozone being the most characteristic component that, in turn, its presence in air is related to oxides of nitrogen, mainly with nitrogen dioxide, and those with volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Secondly, the irregular episodes of contamination by particulate matter carried by winds of the South component from North Africa and / or the Sahara are highlighted.

The pollutants associated with these two phenomena, should be evaluated with independent models to the one considered here, given the complexity and extent of the mechanisms involved, or try to incorporate into the previous model the mechanisms associated with the formation and destruction of representative components, of such that it is also possible to know the expected concentrations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.

Source: Ayuntamiento de Murcia