Urban morphological parameters and air pollution : A practical application utilising computational fluid dynamics 2CFD3 2applied on new cities, Egypt3 / Ahmed Mohamed Abdelmonem Elsayed Rabie ; Supervised Souad Y. Bashndy , Hesham M. Elbarmelgy , Tarek Zaki A. Aboulseoud

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning - Department of Urban Design

Air pollution is a major threat to urban environments. Cairo{u2019}s air quality has been rapidly deteriorating over the past two decades, not only in the territory{u2019}s urban centers but also apparent in residential areas in and around the city. Although much is known about the sources of air pollution, little is known about the causes that contribute to high concentrations of polluted air at road level. Previous studies have explored relationships among air quality, physical urban form and microclimatic conditions at a city or macro level, but little research has been done on air pollution problems at the neighborhood or micro level. Lack of research progress in this area could be partly due to the complexity of the problem and complexity of urban fabric at the micro scale. Lack of awareness and knowledge about associations between urban morphology and road level air pollution at micro scale is a key factor that hinders mitigation efforts in most urban residential areas in Cairo. This study aims to investigate associations between urban morphology and road level air pollutant concentration in residential environments in flat terrains in Cairo. It also aims to identify crucial morphological variables related to road level air pollutant concentration in such environments. The study postulates that there is an association between urban morphology and road level air pollutant concentration, and that manipulation of these crucial urban morphological variables could mitigate air pollutant concentration in residential areas. A theoretical model is developed to explain the complex relationships among road level air pollution, micro-meteorology and urban morphological dimension and to provide a methodological framework for this study at micro level

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