Review on pollutant dispersion in urban areas-part B : local mitigation strategies, optimization framework, and evaluation theory

Abstract

Outdoor air pollution is a significant global issue because it poses a major long-term health risk. A growing number of studies are conducted to develop local mitigation strategies for improving air quality. This review paper critically evaluates the available literature to provide a better understanding of potential local mitigation strategies and ascertain the methods for reducing local air pollution exposure. For these purposes, the first part of the review is categorized into three groups: (i) improving urban ventilation and turbulence level for pollutant dispersion. (ii) controlling source-receptor pathways by constructing barriers. (iii) capturing and mitigating air pollution by introducing pollutant sinks. Subsequently, a series of studies on optimization frameworks are summarized. It is found that surrogate model-based optimization frameworks efficiently handle multi-objective optimizations at a low computational cost. Finally, this review examines publications on the evaluation theory for pollutant dispersion to determine feasible methods for the removal of pollutants from urban areas. This study is useful for urban planners and architects responsible for decision-making.