Levels of particles
With the help of Chilean experts and experience gained from the collaboration with Chile, SMHI has carried out a pilot project in the town of Sapiranga in Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil. Levels of particles in the air were estimated by measuring and modelling. Results from the project indicate that particle levels in a small town like Sapiranga may be high due to wood burning, among other things. It is important that this problem is noticed and measures are taken, so that attention is not only given to pollution in large cities. The project was mostly carried out in 2014 and the final report was submitted in March 2015. It has received a lot of attention in the state.
Report from the air environment project in Sapiranga in Brazil (5.6 MB, pdf)
Since 2015 SMHI has collaborated with the Curitiba municipality, the environmental authority of the Paraná state and various universities in the city on a project with focus on particles and black carbon. The bilateral cooperation is named ParCur (Particles in Curitiba). Although the design of the ParCur project is similar to the project in Sapiranga, there are important and challenging differences, since Curitiba is a city with around 2 million inhabitants and the city was also first to introduce a metro-like bus system, a so called Bus Rapid Transport (BRT). The results of the first phase of ParCur, are described in the report below.