The 4th national conference on air and noise pollution management (AQM2016)

The 4th national conference on air and noise pollution management (AQM2016) is organized by Tehran Municipality (Air Quality Control Co., AQCC), and Sharif University of Technology (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fuel, Combustion, and Emission (FCE) research center) .
8 megacities in Iran suffer greatly from local air pollution of various sources. Ahwaz in the south-west of Iran was named in 2010 by WHO as the most polluted city of the world due to annual average PM10 concentration caused by trans-boundary dust. City of Arak at the center of country is heavily polluted by plumes of various industrial sources including aluminum plants. The capital – City of Tehran- with 8.5 million inhabitant, 4 million vehicles, and 1 million gasoline motorcycles suffers from episodes of air pollution. One third of the days of a normal year in Tehran is ranked unhealthy by national standards mostly due to pollution caused by traffic sources. During winter time, long period of thermal inversion causes long-lasting polluted days which triggers measures like forced holiday in the city, school shut-downs and alternate traffic permissions.
Limited availability of scientific tools such as air pollution dispersion models, forecasting tools, emission inventories, emission factors, and source identifications by various methods, unknown chemical and physical properties of pollutants including fine particles, health effects, exposure studies, etc. caused the introduction of AQM2013 for the first time. Since then, AQM conferences have been organized by AQCC and FCE in order to facilitate and trigger the need for further understating of air pollution in mega-cities. The conference is held in the national level, absorbing more than 200 research paper presentation each year which ends in 50 oral presentations and 50 poster presentations each year. Moreover, a scientific committee of 40 researchers and university profs nationwide locates in the conference.