Monitoring intraurban spatial patterns of multiple combustion air pollutants in New York City: Design and implementation

Abstract

Routine air monitoring provides data to assess urban scale temporal variation in pollution concentrations in relation to regulatory standards, but is not well suited to characterizing intraurban spatial variation in pollutant concentrations from local sources. To address these limitations and inform local control strategies, New York City developed a program to track spatial patterns of multiple air pollutants in each season of the year. Monitor locations include 150 distributed street-level sites chosen to represent a range of traffic, land-use and other characteristics. Integrated samples are collected at each distributed site for one 2-week session each season and in every 2-week period at five reference locations to track city-wide temporal variation. Pollutants sampled include PM(2.5) and constituents, nitrogen oxides, black carbon, ozone (summer only) and sulfur dioxide (winter only). During the first full year of monitoring more than 95% of designed samples were completed. Agreement between colocated samples was good (absolute mean % difference 3.2-8.9%). Street-level pollutant concentrations spanned a much greater range than did concentrations at regulatory monitors, especially for oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide. Monitoring to characterize intraurban spatial gradients in ambient pollution usefully complements regulatory monitoring data to inform local air quality management.

Spatial Variation in Environmental Noise and Air Pollution in New York City

“…37 A detailed description of the air quality monitors has been published elsewhere. 23,33 Briefly, we measured 2-week integrated samples of fine PM 2.5 using Harvard Impactors (Air Diagnostics and Engineering, Harrison, ME) operated at 4 L/min with 37 mm Teflon filters. Black carbon content of PM 2.5 was determined by calculating absorbance from a reflectance analysis of the filters using an EEL (incorporating Evans Electroselenium) smoke stain reflectometer (model 43D; Diffusion Systems, London, UK).…”

“…Black carbon content of PM 2.5 was determined by calculating absorbance from a reflectance analysis of the filters using an EEL (incorporating Evans Electroselenium) smoke stain reflectometer (model 43D; Diffusion Systems, London, UK). 33,38 Oxides of nitrogen were measured using passive samplers (Ogawa & Co. USA, Pompano Beach, FL). The active and passive components of the sampling unit were housed in a weatherproof case and mounted at 10-12 ft onto street-side light and signal posts.…”

“…A detailed description of the NYCCAS site selection process is published elsewhere. 33 One, 2-week integrated sample was taken at each site, with 16-17 sites measured during each 2-week session (100 sites measured during the 12-week fall campaign).…”

“…We then deployed monitors at a subset of locations with varying traffic and land-use characteristics where air pollution samples are routinely collected as part of a citywide air monitoring program. 33 We computed metrics commonly used to assess chronic noise exposures as well as intermittent noise exposure metrics similar to those previously used in occupational settings. 34,35 We then examined correlations among noise exposure metrics, assessed associations of noise metrics and ambient concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), nitric oxide (NO), and black carbon (BC) content of PM 2.5 , and examined associations of nearby traffic and building density with noise exposure metrics.…”

BTEX exposures in an area impacted by industrial and mobile sources: Source attribution and impact of averaging time

“…These campaigns can vary in their spatial extent, temporal coverage, and number of measured pollutants. Examples include the European ESCAPE study (Beelen et al, 2013;Cyrys et al, 2012;de Hoogh et al, 2013;Eeftens et al, 2012a;Eeftens et al, 2012b), the NYCCAS study in New York City (Clougherty et al, 2013;Matte et al, 2013), and the multicity MESA Air (Hajat et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2014). These mapping studies typically rely on aggregated samples collected on weekly or biweekly schedules.…”