Spatial and Temporal Variation of PM10 from Industrial Point Sources in a Rural Area in Limpopo, South Africa

Abstract

Air pollution from industrial point sources accounts for a large proportion of air pollution issues affecting many communities around the world. However, emissions from these sources are technically controllable by putting in place abatement technologies with feasible and stringent regulatory conditions in the operation licenses. Pollution from other sources such as soil erosion, forest fires, road dust, and biomass burning, are subject to several unpredictable natural or economic factors. In this study, findings from dispersion modelling and spatial analysis of pollution were presented to evaluate the potential impacts of PM10 emissions from point sources in the Greater Tubatse Municipality of Limpopo, South Africa. The Air Pollution Model (TAPM) was used to model nested horizontal grids down to 10 km for meteorology and 4 km resolution for air pollution was used for simulation of PM10. An analysis of annual and seasonal variations of PM10 emissions from point sources was undertaken to demonstrate their impact on the environment and the surrounding communities based on 2016 emissions data. A simple Kriging method was used to generate interpolation surfaces for PM10 concentrations from industrial sources with the purpose of identifying their areas of impact. The results suggest that valley wind channeling is responsible for the distribution of pollutants in a complex terrain. The results revealed that PM10 concentrations were higher closer to the sources during the day and distributed over a wide area during the night.

Changes in health risk associated with air pollution and policy response effectiveness, Richards Bay, South Africa

“…Cases of CEV in the younger, as well as the older generation, is still an issue that requires continuous monitoring and intervention. A recent study in Limpopo, South Africa with similar results, (Tshehla & Wright, 2019b) has suggested a revision of the current South Africa PM₁₀ standards to be comparable to the WHO guidelines. This is desirable to improve the protection of human health and wellbeing.…”

Seasonal variations and source apportionment of carbonaceous aerosol in PM2.5 from a coal mining city in the North China Plain

“…Carbonaceous aerosols cause more concern due to their complex impact on human health (Tshehla and Wright, 2019) and environment (Peng et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2019). EC has strong absorptivity of solar radiation and is considered to be the most important particulate component related to global warming, whereas OC is mainly a scattering medium and exerts a negative relation forcing effect (Ramirez et al, 2018).…”

Pollution Dispersion from a Fire Using a Gaussian Plume Model

“…Modelling has been often used to evaluate concentration and dispersion process of pollutants in air [9], water [10] and ground [11]. In the modeling field there are various mathematical approaches to describe reality and to define the behavior of solid particles such as particulates, such as discrete element method (DEM) [12].…”