Assessment of Ambient Air Quality in the State of Kuwait: Al Jahra City Study

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to present an assessment of ambient air quality of Al Jahra city (32 kilometers/20 miles northwest Kuwait City). Measurements of ambient sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NO2) carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM10), ozone (O3), methane (CH4) and Non-methane hydrocarbons (NCH4) along with metrological factors (winds speed, wind direction, and solar radiation) were taken over the period of the year 2008. Most regional and worldwide studies considered these pollutants for the assessment due to its vital effects on both health and environmental. The study present a descriptive statistics of the data, calculation of the Air Quality Index (AQI) based on the reading average, along with the hazard quotient. Result shows that the AQI was in the green (good) region except for PM10 it was in the yellow (moderate) region. The calculated Hazard Index of all the components separately and the overall Health Index, did not exceed its ambient air quality standard (AAQS) which is reported by the USEPA. This paper also studies any possible relation between the presented factors using the correlation matrix technique. It was found that there is a relation between the NOx and both carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. A simple analysis of variance using ANOVA test was made on the data to identify the variance (quality) of the data. A temporal study was made using the average concentrations of the data during the hours of the day for the whole year to study the trend of these pollutants during that covered year. This part enables us to predict the sources of the pollutants according to its peak times.