Assessment of background particulate matter concentrations in small cities and rural locations—Prince George, Canada

Veira, Andreas; Jackson, Peter L.; Ainslie, Bruce; Fudge, Dennis

doi:10.1080/10962247.2013.789091

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Consequently, the reduction effect of precipitation scavenging at urban sites was higher than that at road-side air monitoring sites. The ratio of wet to dry concentrations for PM 10 at background sites in Canada was 0.66 (Veira et al, 2013). This ratio was similar to our value for the urban air monitoring site while that of the road-side air monitoring site was much closer to one.…”

Section: Analyses Of Hourly Concentrationsupporting

confidence: 73%

Effect of Precipitation on Air Pollutant Concentration in Seoul, Korea

Kim¹,

Hong²,

Jun³

et al. 2014

Asian J. Atmos. Environ

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In this study, long-term rainfall data with irregular spatial distribution in Seoul, Korea, were separated into individual precipitation events by the inter-event time definition of 6 hours. Precipitation washout of PM 10 and NO 2 concentrations in the air considering various complex factors were analyzed quantitatively. Concentrations of PM 10 and NO 2 in the atmosphere were lower under condition of rainfall compared to that of non-precipitation, and a noticeable difference in average PM 10 concentrations was observed. The reduction of concentrations of PM 10 and NO 2 by rainfall monitored at road-side air monitoring sites was also lower than that of urban air monitoring sites due to continuous pollutant emissions by transportation sources. Meanwhile, a relatively smaller reduction of average PM 10 concentration in the atmosphere was observed under conditions of light rainfall below 1 mm, presumably because the impact of pollutant emission was higher than that of precipitation scavenging effect, whereas an obvious reduction of pollutants was shown under conditions of rainfall greater than 1 mm. A log-shaped regression equation was most suitable for the expression of pollutant reduction by precipitation amount. In urban areas, a lower correlation between precipitation and reduction of NO 2 concentration was also observed due to the mobile emission effect.

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Section: Analyses Of Hourly Concentrationsupporting

confidence: 73%

Effect of Precipitation on Air Pollutant Concentration in Seoul, Korea

Kim¹,

Hong²,

Jun³

et al. 2014

Asian J. Atmos. Environ

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“…It needs mentioning that these works pertain to large geographical areas encompassing diverse physical environments and eco-climatic zones. The lower limit of background concentration from the present study is 0.2 µg m -3 higher than the lower end of 1.8-2.5 µg m -3 range calculated for locations in the BC Interior (Veira et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 77%

“…Finally, there is need to discriminate particulate levels that can be reduced, from those that cannot be mitigated. The latter, more appropriately referred to as background con-centrations (McKendry 2006, Veira et al 2013) is a vital element for consideration when setting air quality goals and mobilizing resources to achieve them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perhaps, differences in estimates could be more due to the estimation methods adopted by the various authors. For example, Veira et al (2013) was for locations in small cities and was based on analysis of wind sectors, for which trajectories were assumed to have passed over negligible upwind sources of anthropogenic emissions. PM 2.5 background concentration in the present study is within the range of 1.7-3.8 µg m -3 by a study that was based on monitoring data of six remote rural locations in Alberta (Cheng et al 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) modeling of the atmospheric quality and pollutant deposition over the Terrace-Kitimat Valley of northwestern British Columbia, Canada

Onwukwe¹

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Tracking the effects of air pollution from industries is important for developing management strategies under changing emissions. However, computational tools for air pollution assessment often do not elucidate modeling uncertainty, making it difficult for environmental policy-makers to know how much confidence to put in model results, which also hampers aspects that may need improving. This study examined how the WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ modeling system with various planetary boundary-layer (PBL) schemes and atmospheric datasets mimics the local meteorology, air quality and acidic deposition at 1 km horizontal resolution over the industrializing Terrace-Kitimat Valley of northwestern British Columbia. Quantitative and qualitative correspondence of model outputs with observational data varied with station location, the nature of pollutant emissions, and quantity of chemical species. Valid model outputs were used to delineate present compliance with objectives on ambient fine particulate matter, and baseline exceedance of critical loads of sulfur and nitrogen deposition for the forest ecosystem. Spatial impacts of anticipated industrial emissions on the environment were also assessed. An additional 15 tonnes day-1 permissible SO2 emission from an aluminum smelter in Kitimat was projected to result in 50–88 % increase in aerial exceedance of the limit for protection of lichen, and 37–67 % increase in spatial exceedance of acidic deposition to soils. Cumulatively, 16–18 km2 of plant habitat, and 10–11 km2 of soil in an area contiguous with the smelter site will likely be damaged by its SO2 emission under the latest regulation. Should two Liquefied Natural Gas projects commence operations, cumulative NOx concentrations are expected to remain below harmful levels, while pre-existing areal exceedance of nitrogen deposition will barely increase (0–1 km2). An additional 4 km2 area will be exposed to SO2 concentrationsiii that are directly harmful to vegetation, while 13–14 km2 total area with an average of 29.7–35.0 kg ha-1 yr-1 excess sulfur deposition was estimated. These projections assumed all future emissions of NOx, SO2 and other air pollutants will be from elevated point sources.

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“…However, it is still controversial to define the safe threshold for ambient pollutants. Hence, in this study, we applied the natural background concentration for the lower limit of related ambient pollutants (Fiore et al, 2002;WHO, 2000;Veira et al, 2013), as listed in table S3. Pop is the spatial distribution of the population over the PRD in domain 3.…”

Section: C-r Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of health and economic costs of air pollution over the Pearl River Delta region in China

Yao

Fung

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

125

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The Pearl River Delta region (PRD) is the economic growth engine of China and also one of the most urbanized regions in the world. As a two-sided sword, rapid economic development causes air pollution and poses adverse health effects to the citizens in this area. This work estimated the negative health effects in the PRD caused by the four major ambient pollutants (SO2, NO2, O3 and PM10) from 2010 to 2013 by using a log linear exposure-response function and the WRF-CMAQ modeling system. Economic loss due to mortality and morbidity was evaluated by the value of statistical life (VSL) and cost of illness (COI) methods. The results show that the overall possible short-term all-cause mortality due to NO2, O3 and PM10 reached the highest in 2013 with the values being 13,217-22,800. The highest total economic loss, which ranged from 14,768 to 25,305million USD, occurred in 2013 and was equivalent to 1.4%-2.3% of the local gross domestic product. The monthly profile of cases of negative health effects varied by city and the types of ambient pollutants. The ratio of mortality attributed to air pollutants to total population was higher in urban areas than in rural areas. People living in the countryside should consider the possible adverse health effects of urban areas before they plan a move to the city. The results show that the health burden caused by the ambient pollutants over this region is serious and suggest that tighter control policies should be implemented in the future to reduce the level of air pollution.

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Assessment of background particulate matter concentrations in small cities and rural locations—Prince George, Canada

Cited by 10 publications

References 23 publications

Effect of Precipitation on Air Pollutant Concentration in Seoul, Korea

Effect of Precipitation on Air Pollutant Concentration in Seoul, Korea

Community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) modeling of the atmospheric quality and pollutant deposition over the Terrace-Kitimat Valley of northwestern British Columbia, Canada

Estimation of health and economic costs of air pollution over the Pearl River Delta region in China

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