Road Traffic: A Major Source of Particulate Matter in Europe

2013 ◽  
pp. 165-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulvio Amato ◽  
Martijn Schaap ◽  
Cristina Reche ◽  
Xavier Querol
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Road Traffic

scholarly journals The representation of dust transport and missing urban sources as major issues for the simulation of PM episodes in a Mediterranean area

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 15295-15325 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Flaounas ◽  
I. Coll ◽  
A. Armengaud ◽  
C. Schmechtig
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Quality Management ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Atmospheric Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality Management ◽  
Diurnal Variability ◽  
Dust Transport

Abstract. Due to its adverse effects on human health, atmospheric particulate matter (PM) constitutes a growing challenge for air quality management. It is also a complex subject of study. The understanding of its atmospheric evolution is indeed made difficult by the wide number of sources and the numerous processes that govern its evolution in the troposphere. As a consequence, the representation of particulate matter in chemistry-transport models needs to be permanently evaluated and enhanced in order to refine our comprehension of PM pollution events and to propose consistent environmental policies. The study presented here focuses on a summer particulate pollution episode that occurred on the French Mediterranean coast. It aims at identifying the constitutive elements of this episode and to discuss its representation within a eulerian model. We first highlight the major role of dust transport from western Africa in the formation of a multi-day PM event. This result shows that dust import has to be regarded as a potentially major participant to PM events in Europe, even when considering moderate peak values. In parallel we focus on a lack of diurnal variability in the model, which is attributed to missing urban sources in standard emission inventories, and notably the resuspension of particles by urban road traffic. Through a sensitivity study based on PM and NOx measurements, we could assess the amplitude of this lack as well as the need to reconsider road traffic PM sources. In parallel, by coupling the CHIMERE-DUST model outputs to our simulation, we could show that the representation of transcontinental dust transport is a necessity for a better simulation of atmospheric particles in Southern Europe, and – in the frame of air quality management – for the quantification of the anthropogenic part of particulate matter pollution.

scholarly journals Sources of PM10 Air Pollution in Rural Area in the Vicinity of a Highway In Žilina Selfgoverning Region, Slovakia

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dušan Jandačka
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Local Heating ◽  
Harmful Effect ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
The Road

Abstract Particulate matter results as an aftermath of numerous distinctive processes in the atmosphere and they become a part of everyday life. Their harmful effect and impact on the ambient environment is determined predominantly by the presence of various chemical substances and elements. The chemical composition of these particles (organic and elemental carbon, mineral dust, sea aerosols, secondary particles, especially sulphates and nitrates, heavy metals and further elements) is mainly impacted on by their origin, whereas the primary source of the particulate matter is determined and specified by the profile of chemical elements and substances. Particulate Matter (PM) may originate in various natural resources or anthropogenic sources. Among the natural sources sea salt is to be counted on, dust of the earth crust, pollen and volcanic ashes. Anthropogenic sources do include, predominantly, burning fossil fuels in the fossil-fuel power plants, local heating of households, burning liquefied fossil fuels in the combustion engines of vehicles, noncombustion related emissions as a result of vehicular traffic, resuspension of the road-traffic-related dust.

scholarly journals Impact of pollutant emission from motor vehicles on air quality in a city agglomeration

2019 ◽  
Vol 177 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-11
Author(s):  
Zdzisław CHŁOPEK ◽  
Jakub LASOCKI ◽  
Katarzyna STRZAŁKOWSKA ◽  
Dagna ZAKRZEWSKA
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Nitrogen Oxides ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Pollutant Emission ◽  
Emission Data

In the large urban areas, in middle latitudes, as in case of Poland, the cause of poor air quality is immission: in winter particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5, in summer – ozone and nitrogen oxides (or nitrogen dioxide). In the whole country, road transport is significantly responsible for the emission of nitrogen oxides (30%), carbon monoxide (20%) and less for emission of particulate matter (a few percent). In the case of other pollutants, the emission of non-metallic organic compounds is less than 10% (including polycyclic organic compounds – just over 0.5%), and sulfur oxides – only 0.03%! To analyze impact of automotive industry on air quality, pollutant emission data from two stations in Krakow were selected. These stations are known for poor air quality – the stations are: Dietla Street – with a high level of traffic and Kurdwanów – place located far from traffic routes. It was found that other objects than automotive vehicles are the dominant source of dust. These are industrial sources and – above all – energy sources, especially individual heating installations. Particularly large dust pollution occurs in winter and it is not always in areas with intense traffic. There was a strong dependence between immission of pollutants and road traffic, however, this dependence is not dominant in assessing the risk of air quality in urban agglomerations.

scholarly journals Near-Road Traffic-Related Air Pollution: Resuspended PM2.5 from Highways and Arterials

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 2851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hashem Askariyeh ◽  
Madhusudhan Venugopal ◽  
Haneen Khreis ◽  
Andrew Birt ◽  
Josias Zietsman
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
Dispersion Modeling ◽  
Hotspot Analysis ◽  
Adverse Health Effects ◽  
Transportation Sector

Recent studies suggest that the transportation sector is a major contributor to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in urban areas. A growing body of literature indicates PM2.5 exposure can lead to adverse health effects, and that PM2.5 concentrations are often elevated close to roadways. The transportation sector produces PM2.5 emissions from combustion, brake wear, tire wear, and resuspended dust. Traffic-related resuspended dust is particulate matter, previously deposited on the surface of roadways that becomes resuspended into the air by the movement of traffic. The objective of this study was to use regulatory guidelines to model the contribution of resuspended dust to near-road traffic-related PM2.5 concentrations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for quantitative hotspot analysis were used to predict traffic-related PM2.5 concentrations for a small network in Dallas, Texas. Results show that the inclusion of resuspended dust in the emission and dispersion modeling chain increases prediction of near-road PM2.5 concentrations by up to 74%. The results also suggest elevated PM2.5 concentrations near arterial roads. Our results are discussed in the context of human exposure to traffic-related air pollution.

scholarly journals Long-range and local air pollution: what can we learn from chemical speciation of particulate matter at paired sites?

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 409-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Pandolfi ◽  
Dennis Mooibroek ◽  
Philip Hopke ◽  
Dominik van Pinxteren ◽  
Xavier Querol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Coal Combustion ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Mineral Matter ◽  
Ship Emissions ◽  
Maritime Shipping ◽  
Source Contributions

Abstract. Here we report results of a detailed analysis of the urban and non-urban contributions to particulate matter (PM) concentrations and source contributions in five European cities, namely Schiedam (the Netherlands, NL), Lens (France, FR), Leipzig (Germany, DE), Zurich (Switzerland, CH) and Barcelona (Spain, ES). PM chemically speciated data from 12 European paired monitoring sites (one traffic, five urban, five regional and one continental background) were analysed by positive matrix factorisation (PMF) and Lenschow's approach to assign measured PM and source contributions to the different spatial levels. Five common sources were obtained at the 12 sites: sulfate-rich (SSA) and nitrate-rich (NSA) aerosols, road traffic (RT), mineral matter (MM), and aged sea salt (SS). These sources explained from 55 % to 88 % of PM mass at urban low-traffic-impact sites (UB) depending on the country. Three additional common sources were identified at a subset of sites/countries, namely biomass burning (BB) (FR, CH and DE), explaining an additional 9 %–13 % of PM mass, and residual oil combustion (V–Ni) and primary industrial (IND) (NL and ES), together explaining an additional 11 %–15 % of PM mass. In all countries, the majority of PM measured at UB sites was of a regional+continental (R+C) nature (64 %–74 %). The R+C PM increments due to anthropogenic emissions in DE, NL, CH, ES and FR represented around 66 %, 62 %, 52 %, 32 % and 23 %, respectively, of UB PM mass. Overall, the R+C PM increments due to natural and anthropogenic sources showed opposite seasonal profiles with the former increasing in summer and the latter increasing in winter, even if exceptions were observed. In ES, the anthropogenic R+C PM increment was higher in summer due to high contributions from regional SSA and V–Ni sources, both being mostly related to maritime shipping emissions at the Spanish sites. Conversely, in the other countries, higher anthropogenic R+C PM increments in winter were mostly due to high contributions from NSA and BB regional sources during the cold season. On annual average, the sources showing higher R+C increments were SSA (77 %–91 % of SSA source contribution at the urban level), NSA (51 %–94 %), MM (58 %–80 %), BB (42 %–78 %) and IND (91 % in NL). Other sources showing high R+C increments were photochemistry and coal combustion (97 %–99 %; identified only in DE). The highest regional SSA increment was observed in ES, especially in summer, and was related to ship emissions, enhanced photochemistry and peculiar meteorological patterns of the Western Mediterranean. The highest R+C and urban NSA increments were observed in NL and associated with high availability of precursors such as NOx and NH3. Conversely, on average, the sources showing higher local increments were RT (62 %–90 % at all sites) and V–Ni (65 %–80 % in ES and NL). The relationship between SSA and V–Ni indicated that the contribution of ship emissions to the local sulfate concentrations in NL has strongly decreased since 2007 thanks to the shift from high-sulfur- to low-sulfur-content fuel used by ships. An improvement of air quality in the five cities included here could be achieved by further reducing local (urban) emissions of PM, NOx and NH3 (from both traffic and non-traffic sources) but also SO2 and PM (from maritime ships and ports) and giving high relevance to non-urban contributions by further reducing emissions of SO2 (maritime shipping) and NH3 (agriculture) and those from industry, regional BB sources and coal combustion.

scholarly journals Differentiation of Particulate Matter Sources Based on the Chemical Composition of PM10 in Functional Urban Areas

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dusan Jandacka ◽  
Daniela Durcanska
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
Fine Fraction ◽  
Gravimetric Method ◽  
Coarse Fraction ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
The City

Urban air quality is continuing to deteriorate. If we want to do something about this problem, we need to know the cause of the pollution. The big problem, not only in Europe, is the high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) in the urban environment. The origin of these particles can be different, including combustion, transport, industry, natural resources, etc. Particulate matter includes a large amount of the finest PM fractions, which can remain in the air for a long time, easily enter respiratory tracks, and damage human health. Particulate matter is also produced by the abrasion of different parts of roads and vehicle fleets and from resuspension road dust, which concerns matter with larger aerodynamic diameters. For this reason, we carried out a series of measurements at various measuring stations in Žilina, Slovakia, during different measuring seasons. The main objective was to find out the diversity of particulate matter sources in Žilina. The search for the particulate matter origin was carried out by particulate matter measurements, determination of the particulate matter fraction concentrations (PM10, PM2.5, and PM1), an investigation on the effect of secondary factors on the particulate matter concentrations, chemical analyses, and multivariate statistical analyses. Varied behavior of the particulate matter with respect to the measurement station and the measurement season was found. Differences in the concentrations of investigated chemical elements contained in the PM were found. Significant changes in the concentrations of particulate matter are caused not only by primary sources (e.g., road traffic in the city of Žilina), but mainly by the negative events (combination of air pollution sources and meteorological conditions). Maximum concentrations of particulate matter PM10 were measured during the winter season at the measuring station on Komenského Street: PM10 126.2 µg/m3, PM2.5 97.7 µg/m3, and PM1 90.4 µg/m3 were obtained using the gravimetric method. The coarse fraction PM2.5-10 was mainly represented by the chemical elements Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Cr, Fe, and Ba, and the fine fraction PM2.5 was represented by the chemical elements K, S, Cd, Pb, Ni, and Zn. Road transport as a dominant source of PM10 was identified from all measurements in the city of Žilina by using the multivariate statistical methods of principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis (FA).

scholarly journals Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter originating from traffic and residential wood combustion and the prevalence of depression

2021 ◽  
pp. jech-2021-216772
Author(s):  
Sara Allaouat ◽  
Tarja Yli-Tuomi ◽  
Pekka Tiittanen ◽  
Anu W Turunen ◽  
Taina Siponen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Wood Combustion ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Prevalence Of Depression

IntroductionAir pollution has been suggested to be associated with depression. However, current evidence is conflicting, and no study has considered different sources of ambient particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter below 2.5 µm (PM2.5). We evaluated the associations of long-term exposure to PM2.5 from road traffic and residential wood combustion with the prevalence of depression in the Helsinki region, Finland.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional analysis based on the Helsinki Capital Region Environmental Health Survey 2015–2016 (N=5895). Modelled long-term outdoor concentrations of PM2.5 were evaluated using high-resolution emission and dispersion modelling on an urban scale and linked to the home addresses of study participants. The outcome was self-reported doctor-diagnosed or treated depression. We applied logistic regression and calculated the OR for 1 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5, with 95% CI. Models were adjusted for potential confounders, including traffic noise and urban green space.ResultsOf the participants, 377 reported to have been diagnosed or treated for depression by a doctor. Long-term exposure to PM2.5 from road traffic (OR=1.23, 95% CI 0.86 to 1.73; n=5895) or residential wood combustion (OR=0.78, 95% CI 0.43 to 1.41; n=5895) was not associated with the prevalence of depression. The estimates for PM2.5 from road traffic were elevated, but statistically non-significant, for non-smokers (OR=1.38, 95% CI 0.94 to 2.01; n=4716).ConclusionsWe found no convincing evidence of an effect of long-term exposure to PM2.5 from road traffic or residential wood combustion on depression.

scholarly journals Vpliv omejitve gibanja med epidemijo Covid-19 na obremenjevanje ozračja v Sloveniji

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjan Senegačnik ◽  
Davorin Žnidarič ◽  
Drago Vuk
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Entire World ◽  
Source Of Pollution

In 2020 the entire world was severely affected by COVID -19 epidemics. Because of preventing of the SARS Cov 2 virus spread there was necessary to introduce considerable restrictions of movement of citizens. This resulted in various negative effects in the field of economy. However, as road traffic is an important source of pollution – particularly of emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases it could be expected that these mobility restrictions result in certain positive effects on the environment. The paper will try to estimate the air quality during the period of epidemics when mobility was severely restricted (second half of March and April 2020, second half of October, November and December 2020). The review will be limited to those kinds of pollutants which are particularly related to road traffic (nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, ozone) as well as to carbon dioxide as the most important greenhouse gas.

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