No abstract

Over the years, decline in air quality has been connected to the growing rate of urbanization and increasing number of vehicles on the roads. Most of the pollutants emitted from vehicular activities have been observed to have adverse effects on individuals as well as the atmosphere. Although, the focus of this study is to develop an emission dispersion model to predict the concentration of specific air pollutants with distance, the application of geostatistical technique such as Kriging interpolation to study the spatial distribution of pollutants from vehicular emissions around the study area was also exemplified. Seven (7) georeferenced points, namely, Ugbowo main gate, Ekosodin junction, Agen junction, Super D junction, Nitel junction, Okhunmwun junction and Oluku market junction were used for data collection. Pollutants from vehicular emissions, namely, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) including the total radiation were monitored in the morning and evening for a period of 35 days (7th July to 12th August 2020) with the aid of portable toxic gas monitors and radiation alert meters. Other parameters of interest, which were also measured include maximum temperature and wind speed using infra-red thermometers and portable anemometer respectively. To ascertain the quality of the data, selected preliminary analysis, namely, test of normality, test of homogeneity, outlier detection and reliability test were done. Result of the study showed a high concentration of NO2, CO and total radiation around Ugbowo main gate and Okhunmwun community and environs especially during the peak hours of evening (5.0 p.m. – 6.0 p.m.) when the traffic load is high.

The study is aimed at using water quality index (WQI) as a standard for determining the suitability of the surface water for irrigation purpose within the Maikunkele Fadama area in Niger State, Nigeria by monitoring five sampling points for five months. The samples were analyzed for includes nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4), sodium (Na), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and iron (Fe), besides other general parameters (pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), alkalinity, total hardness, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity). The WQI for the parameters under investigation were determined and values compared international standards. The mean temperature value ranged between 29.5 and 30.4 oC, while pH values of 7.18 maximum and 5.95 minimum were observed for the study location. The electrical conductivity ranged between 174 and 274 µScm-1. The mean concentration of calcium ion ranged between 3.68 and 4.44 mgL-1. The concentration of Fe was 0.13 mgL-1 and 1.48 mgL-1. The minimum and maximum values of Zn are 0.01 mgL-1 and 0.17 mgL-1 respectively. The Maikunkele Fadama stream had WQI value ranging from 43.469 to 47.120 which fall under good water category, these also conforms to the results obtained from the analysis carried out. It is therefore concluded that the stream water feeding the Maikunkele Fadama farm is fit to be used as irrigation water for the study area as Fadama stream had WQI value ranging from 43.469 to 47.120 thus falling under good water category as far as water quality for irrigation purpose is concerned. Hence, the stream water feeding the Maikunkele fadama farm is fit to be used as irrigation water.Keywords-  Agrochemicals, contamination, fadama farming, Irrigation water, water quality index

Decline in air quality over the years has been linked to the growing rate of urbanization as well as an increase in the number of vehicles occasioned by the increased purchasing power of the people. Most of the pollutants emitted from vehicular activities have been observed to have adverse effects on individuals as well as the atmosphere. The focus of this study is to employ multivariate and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) based on maximum likelihood estimation, to study the incidence of vehicular emissions in some parts of Benin city metropolis. Seven (7) georeferenced points (University of Benin main gate, Ekosodin junction, Agen Junction, Super D junction, Nitel junction, Okhunmwun junction and Oluku market junction) were used for data collection. Pollutants from vehicular emission, namely; dinitrogen oxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) including the total radiation were monitored in the morning and evening for a period (7th July to 12th August, 2020) with the aid of portable toxic gas monitors and radiation alert meters. Other measured parameters of interest include maximum temperature and wind speed. To ascertain the quality of the data, selected preliminary analysis, namely; test of normality, test of homogeneity, outlier detection and reliability test were done. With a calculated partial Eta squared based on Pillai’s trace of 0.325, it was concluded that; there exist about 32.50 % variability among the dependent variables. Based on the CFA results, it was concluded that the hypothesis formulated for multivariate analysis of variance fits the sample data. Therefore, the alternate hypothesis was rejected and it was concluded that; the difference in the concentration of vehicular emission was as a result of change in temperature occasioned by time of measurement.