Abstract
Air pollution has been identified to be one major problem associated with urbanisation, particularly in developing countries. In this regard, this paper utilizes data from a year-long experiment of simultaneous measurements to examine and compare the variations of carbon monoxide concentrations, a major air pollutant at urban and rural site in Akure, a medium-sized tropical city in south western Nigeria. The comparison was done to assess the urban influence on the air pollutant. CO concentrations at the urban centre have been identified to exhibit distinct diurnal and day-of-week variations with respect to traffic rush hours. It is also observed that the concentrations at the urban centre were 2 - 3 times higher than that of the rural site which exhibited a consistent cyclic diurnal pattern throughout the week. Results further identified the major cause of CO concentration in the urban centre to be vehicular as consistent increase of the air pollutant from 08:00 to 16:00 during the weekdays is found to be associated with “school runs and rush hours” and also rises through the midnight hours on days linked with social events, particularly Saturdays. In relation to human health and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, results showed that CO concentrations at the urban centre exceeded the WHO 8-hour average recommendation during daytime throughout the weekdays.
Highlights
World population is forecast to reach 9 billion by 2050, with almost all the growth in developing countries [1].How to cite this paper: Balogun, I.A., Balogun, A.A. and Adegoke, J. (2014) Carbon Monoxide Concentration Monitoring in Akure—A Comparison between Urban and Rural Environment
It is shown that atmospheric contents of carbon monoxide concentrations at the urban site exceed that of the rural site for all the World Health Organisation WHO time criteria
This study has revealed the air quality status of the Akure in terms of the carbon monoxide (CO) concentration levels at urban and rural scale, and assessed the status with respect to the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard health-based guidelines on Carbon monoxide (CO) pollution
Summary
World population is forecast to reach 9 billion by 2050, with almost all the growth in developing countries [1]. A major problem that generally follows rapid urbanization, especially in developing countries, is a deterioration of air quality with adverse effects for human health due to increased emissions from traffic. Relatively little is known about urban air quality status in developing countries as systematic measurement and monitoring of urban environmental health risks connected to air pollution has received very limited attention [7]. This knowledge gap in the air quality of urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa may restrict adaptation to the extreme urbanization rate [2]. It is probably the first of its kind for the city, investigating the variation of CO concentrations at a rural and urban site in a rapidly growing medium size hot humid tropical city, Akure in southwestern Nigeria
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