Quantification of carbon dioxide and methane emissions in urban areas: source apportionment based on atmospheric observations

Miroslaw Zimnoch (), Jaroslaw Necki, Lukasz Chmura, Alina Jasek, Dorota Jelen, Michal Galkowski, Tadeusz Kuc, Zbigniew Gorczyca, Jakub Bartyzel and Kazimierz Rozanski
Additional contact information
Miroslaw Zimnoch: AGH University of Science and Technology
Jaroslaw Necki: AGH University of Science and Technology
Lukasz Chmura: AGH University of Science and Technology
Alina Jasek: AGH University of Science and Technology
Dorota Jelen: AGH University of Science and Technology
Michal Galkowski: AGH University of Science and Technology
Tadeusz Kuc: AGH University of Science and Technology
Zbigniew Gorczyca: AGH University of Science and Technology
Jakub Bartyzel: AGH University of Science and Technology
Kazimierz Rozanski: AGH University of Science and Technology

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2019, vol. 24, issue 6, No 9, 1071 pages

Abstract: Abstract Anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in the atmosphere constitute an important component of the related carbon budget. The main source of anthropogenic CO2 is burning of fossil fuels, especially in densely populated areas. Similar emissions of CH4 are associated with the agricultural sector, coal mining, and other human activities, such as waste management and storage and natural gas networks supplying methane to large urban, industrial centers. We discuss several methods aimed at characterizing and quantifying atmospheric loads and fluxes of CO2 and CH4 in Krakow, the second largest city in Poland. The methods are based on atmospheric observations of mixing ratios as well as isotopic composition of the investigated gases. Atmospheric mixing ratios of CO2 and CH4 were measured using gas chromatography (GC) and cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS). The isotopic composition of CO2 and CH4 was analyzed using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), and CRDS techniques. These data, combined with auxiliary information characterizing the intensity of vertical mixing in the lower atmosphere (height of the nocturnal boundary layer [NBL] and atmospheric 222Rn concentration), were further used to quantify emission rates of CO2 and CH4 in the urban atmosphere of Krakow. These methods provide an efficient way of quantifying surface emissions of major greenhouse gases originating from distributed sources, thus complementing the widely used bottom-up methodology based on emission statistics.

Keywords: Anthropogenic emissions; Carbon dioxide; Methane; Source apportionment; Urban environment; Krakow agglomeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11027-018-9821-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:24:y:2019:i:6:d:10.1007_s11027-018-9821-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11027

DOI: 10.1007/s11027-018-9821-0

Access Statistics for this article

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change is currently edited by Robert Dixon

More articles in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().