A simple model for estimating emissions of volatile organic compounds from grass and cut grass in urban airsheds and its application to two Australian cities

Grass, and particularly cut grass, recently has been shown to emit significant amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere. Some components of these emissions are highly reactive and may contribute to photochemical smog in urban areas. A simple model for estimating the VOC emissions from grass and for grass cutting that allows these processes to be included in urban/regional emissions inventories is presented here. Using previous work and recent literature values, estimates are made of these biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions for two typical urban airsheds, those including, the cities of Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. Grass and cut grass could contribute similar to2% for Sydney and 3% for Melbourne of the total VOCs emitted into these urban atmospheres annually. These contributions could rise to 4 and 5%, respectively, during the weekends of the summer growing season and, thus, could contribute to weekday/weekend ozone differences. It is recommended that the emissions of BVOCs from grass and cut grass be included in urban and global emissions inventories so that more accurate predictions of smog chemistry can be determined.