How Pollutants Navigate Manhattan Streets

Imagine that a highly-toxic pollutant is released in the middle of Manhattan on a windy day. What is the appropriate response? Evacuate one square block? Ten square blocks? The whole city? How much time do patients at a hospital five blocks north and 20 blocks east have to get out before the concentration is dangerously high? Manhattan. Mid and lower Manhattan as seen from the Empire State Building. Image Credit: Marcela McGreal (CC BY 2.0) These are complicated, high-stakes questions. The answe...