Balikpapan’s wind analysis to determine air quality monitoring point to support smart environment monitoring system

Abstract

In this industrial era, air pollution become a concerning problem since it can cause some respiratory problems. One of the air pollutions was Sulphur dioxide which dilutes fast in atmospheric water vapor resulting in acid rain which can affect the organism. Thus, in this research, we study the probability of the receptor’s location according to wind direction, as the preliminary information on deciding monitoring point. The meteorological data were obtained from Balikpapan’s Agency for Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysics. The wind data was then plotted using a wind rose plot program called WRPLOT. Afterward, the dominant wind speed and direction will then be analyzed using google earth to know which point will be affected by the pollution dispersion from the chimney in Balikpapan. The results show that wind in Balikpapan throughout 2020 mostly blew from Southwest to Northeast Direction. Thus, the most probable receptor locations were open green spaces with no settlement around. This will have less impact on human health. Nevertheless, further research can be conducted to know better the on-air dispersion model around the power plant, how the green plant will be suffered from this air pollution, and how this pollution will affect the workers around it.