Simple Interactive Models for better Air quality (SIM-air)
Air pollution is a growing problem in mega (and in the increasing number of secondary) cities in developing countries. Policy makers recognize the need for an integrated air quality management (IAQM) framework. Such a framework is especially helpful for city planning and decision making, in response to the growing civic demand for clean air.
A majority of the existing tools for IAQM are complex and data-intensive. There is a need to develop an organized knowledge base to feed into a robust decision support tool that takes into account the various institutional and technical challenges in developing countries.
SIM-air is developed to illustrate an analytical approach for IAQM.
The main objective of SIM-air is to make use the best available information to arrive at estimates of key parameters (e.g. emissions from various sources) and simulate the interactions between emissions, dispersion, impacts, and management options in an environmental and economic context.
SIM-air Working Paper Series
SIM-33-2010: Electronic Road Pricing: Experience and Lessons from Singapore (January, 2010)
SIM-32-2010: Estimated Air Pollution & Health Benefits of Metro System in Delhi, India (January, 2010)
SIM-31-2010: Role of Meteorology on Air Pollution Dispersion (January, 2010)
SIM-30-2009: Simplified ATMoS-4.0 Dispersion model for the SIM-air tool (December, 2009)
SIM-29-2009: Monitoring & Mapping Urban Air Pollution (December, 2009)
SIM-28-2009: Measuring Autorickshaw (3W) Emissions to Inform Air Quality Policy (November, 2009)
World News: Mortality and Morbidity due to air pollution
Presentation on SIM-air @ BAQ 2006 (Jogjakarta) and BAQ 2008 (Bangkok)
An illustrated "Primer on Air Quaity Management" (2008)
Modeling tools ***
SIM-air V1.3: (last updated April, 2009) - is a demo tool which allows for 1-year snapshot analysis for a city or region divied into a 5x5 domain. The tool is updated to calculate the emissions for five sectors - transport, industry, residential, fugitive, and garbage burning, along with the concentration maps of primary and secondary, health impacts analysis, and optimization of options. The new version also allows for analysis of PM2.5 and PM10 simultaneously, to customize for local needs. [Download] [Manual] [Download SIM-air V1.2]
SIM-air V2.0: Allows for two baseline and one control scenario analysis simultaneously [Download]
ATMoS-4.0: (updated in December, 2009) Simplified Atmospheric Transport Modeling System-4.0 for generating the source-receptor transfer matrices for use in the SIM-air tool.
[Model, Instructions & Report]
Training modules are available up on request. Last @ BAQ 2008.
Stand-alone SIM-air Components
v-dust 1.01: Calculates fugitive dust due to vehicular activity [Download]
VAPIS 1.01: Vehicular Air Pollution Infomation System (VAPIS)- calculates transport sector emissions for one category
smart-CART: Carbon Analysis of Road Transport, calculates carbon emission reductions for alternative transport interventions [Download] [Manual]
*** The tools and documents are free to download. However, please cite appropriately. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.