Atmospheric pollution in port-cities
Atmospheric pollution in port-cities
Authoritative, trustworthy, continual, automatic hourly air quality monitoring is a relatively recent innovation. The task of reliably identifying long-term trends in air quality is therefore very challenging, as well as complex. Ports are major sources of atmospheric pollution, which is linked to marine traffic and increased road traffic congestion. This study investigated the long-term trends and drivers of atmospheric pollution in the port cities of Houston, London, and Southampton in 2000–2019. Authoritative air quality and meteorological data for seven sites at these three locations were meticulously selected alongside available traffic count data. Data were acquired for sites close to the port and sites that were near the city centre to determine whether the port emissions were influencing different parts of the city. Openair software was used for plots and statistical analyses. Pollutant concentrations at Houston, Southampton and Thurrock (London) slowly reduced over time and did not exceed national limits, in contrast to NO2 and PM10 concentrations at London Marylebone Road. Drivers of atmospheric pollution include meteorology, geographical and temporal variation, and traffic flow. Statistically significant relationships (p < 0.001) between atmospheric pollution concentration and meteorology across most sites were found, but this was not seen with traffic flows in London and Southampton. However, port emissions and the other drivers of atmospheric pollution act together to govern the air quality in the city.
air pollution, polar plot, port cities, time series, time series plot
Owusu-Mfum, Shnelle
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Hudson, Malcolm
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Osborne, Patrick E.
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Roberts, Toby James
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Zapata Restrepo, Lina
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Williams, Ian
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11 July 2023
Owusu-Mfum, Shnelle
f0bdaca5-dd9d-4c8a-abf6-ef9a30bbb5b2
Hudson, Malcolm
1ae18506-6f2a-48af-8c72-83ab28679f55
Osborne, Patrick E.
c4d4261d-557c-4179-a24e-cdd7a98fb2b8
Roberts, Toby James
a713792f-520a-49de-9e1d-ee037950bc52
Zapata Restrepo, Lina
2276abeb-952d-4475-9620-bd0885291f64
Williams, Ian
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22
Owusu-Mfum, Shnelle, Hudson, Malcolm, Osborne, Patrick E., Roberts, Toby James, Zapata Restrepo, Lina and Williams, Ian
(2023)
Atmospheric pollution in port-cities.
Atmosphere, 14 (7), [1135].
(doi:10.3390/atmos14071135).
Abstract
Authoritative, trustworthy, continual, automatic hourly air quality monitoring is a relatively recent innovation. The task of reliably identifying long-term trends in air quality is therefore very challenging, as well as complex. Ports are major sources of atmospheric pollution, which is linked to marine traffic and increased road traffic congestion. This study investigated the long-term trends and drivers of atmospheric pollution in the port cities of Houston, London, and Southampton in 2000–2019. Authoritative air quality and meteorological data for seven sites at these three locations were meticulously selected alongside available traffic count data. Data were acquired for sites close to the port and sites that were near the city centre to determine whether the port emissions were influencing different parts of the city. Openair software was used for plots and statistical analyses. Pollutant concentrations at Houston, Southampton and Thurrock (London) slowly reduced over time and did not exceed national limits, in contrast to NO2 and PM10 concentrations at London Marylebone Road. Drivers of atmospheric pollution include meteorology, geographical and temporal variation, and traffic flow. Statistically significant relationships (p < 0.001) between atmospheric pollution concentration and meteorology across most sites were found, but this was not seen with traffic flows in London and Southampton. However, port emissions and the other drivers of atmospheric pollution act together to govern the air quality in the city.
Text
atmosphere-14-01135
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 5 July 2023
Published date: 11 July 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This paper has been produced as part of the European Union project “EMERGE: Evaluation, Control and Mitigation of the Environmental Impacts of Shipping Emissions” (referred to as “EMERGE”). The EMERGE project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme Research and Innovation action under grant agreement No. 874990.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
Keywords:
air pollution, polar plot, port cities, time series, time series plot
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 479452
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/479452
ISSN: 2073-4433
PURE UUID: e7ceaf36-1762-4f5a-97dc-d1a7fa1a8d4a
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Date deposited: 24 Jul 2023 16:59
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:00
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Contributors
Author:
Shnelle Owusu-Mfum
Author:
Toby James Roberts
Author:
Lina Zapata Restrepo
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