Comparison between Puff and Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Models at a Complex and Coastal Site

A comparison between a puff atmospheric dispersion model (hereafter: PuM) and a Lagrangian particle model (hereafter: LPM) was conducted for a real case of emissions from an industrial plant, in the context of a complex and coastal site. The PuM's approach is well-known and widely adopted worldwide, thanks to the authoritative suggestions by the US-EPA for regulatory use as, according to the definitions included in its guidelines, an "alternative" to "preferred" models; LPMs are more advanced models and have gained reliability over the last two decades. Therefore, it is of interest to provide insights into the decision to adopt or recommend, in the field of atmospheric impact assessment, a more advanced, but more knowledge- and resource-intensive, modeling tool, rather than an established albeit less accurate one. An inter-comparison of the two approaches is proposed based on the use of various statistical and comparative parameters with the goal of studying their differences in reproducing maps of ground-level ambient concentration statistics for assessment purposes (annual means, hourly peaks). The models were tested under a yearlong simulation. The dispersion from both a point and a volume source, belonging to an existing industrial plant, was analyzed separately. The inter-comparison was performed through the analysis of 2D ground concentration maps, scatterplots, and three classical indices from the 2D maps of annual concentration statistics. To correlate the differences among models with site characteristics, the statistics were analyzed not only globally, but also according to distance from the source, the elevation, and the land-use classification. The analysis shows that around-its-axis plume dispersion in LPM is lower than in PuM over all the land-use types except water surfaces, in agreement with the theoretical basis provided by the models. Because of its more advanced theoretical formulation, e.g., in the interaction of the plume with the complex terrain and the three-dimensional wind field, an LPM used as a comparison term allowed us to highlight the weaknesses of a more traditional approach, such as PuM, in reproducing effects such as plume up-sloping, deflection, channeling, confinement, and wind shear diffusion.