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Software developed by EarthSense Systems has been used to assess how trees impact on urban air quality on one of London’s most polluted streets. Called FluidAir, the state of the art solution uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate the flow and dispersion of pollutants within complex 3D surroundings, such as city streets. Scientists at EarthSense Systems integrated road, building and tree data to create an accurate 3D model of the Marylebone area of London. Combining traffic flow data with meteorological information, EarthSense scientists concluded that trees may exacerbate pollution trapping for wind directions perpendicular to the street canyon orientation, and additional planting would not improve air pollution in this situation. The effect of trees on pedestrians was also investigated, and it was found that the introduction of trees in the street slightly changes the distribution of concentrations. www.earthsense.co.uk
