Air Pollution and Specific Meteorological Conditions at the Adjacent Areas of Sea Ports

Meteorological conditions and phenomena in coastal areas show specific peculiarities caused, or significantly affected, by sharp changes in heat, moisture, and momentum transfer due to the contrast in land-sea underlying surfaces. These conditions may be conducive to trap and retain pollutants in the lowest layer of the atmosphere or to assist in its cleaning. Sea transport is the cheapest one and ports are portals for world trade, often being a basic prerequisite for the development of various economic sectors in the coastal regions. Shipping vessels engines run on heavy fuel oil which has a high polluting impact, as the SO2 content of heavy fuel oil is 2700 times higher than in road fuel. Some aspects of the role of meteorological conditions on the dispersion of pollutants and the air quality in the biggest Bulgarian coastal cities of Varna and Burgas are subject of discussion in the present paper. (C) 2018, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.