Characterization of roadside air pollutants: An artery road of Lanzhou city in northwest China

Abstract

Due to the lack of air and traffic monitoring data in China, this study employed a remote sensing (RS) system and air quality monitoring sensors to investigate the air pollutant concentrations, traffic profiles and meteorological data in order to characterize roadside pollutant concentrations and identify their influence factors for a major road in Lanzhou. The results suggested that the temporal variations of concentrations of SO2, NO2, PM2.5, PM10 and CO peaked at 5:00-7:00 while O3 peaked at 17:00. The concentrations of roadside air pollutants were lower on weekdays than weekends except O3. The concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 declined with the height of the monitoring sites increased, peaking at 2-meter height whereas SO2, NO2, CO, and O3 reached their highest concentrations at 4-meter height. The concentrations of roadside NO2 and CO show positive correlations with the volume of heavy-duty trucks (HDTs) and light-duty passenger vehicles (LDPVs), respectively. This study provided scientific support to the establishment of roadside air quality monitoring systems and the assessment of the environmental and health impact from vehicle emissions.