Abstract
In large urban agglomerations, car traffic is one of the main sources of particulate matter. It consists of particulate matter directly generated in the process of incomplete liquid fuel burning in vehicle engine, secondary aerosols formed from exhaust gaseous pollutants (NOx, SO2) as well as products of tires, brake pads and pavement abrasion. Krakow is one of the cities in Europe with the highest concentrations of particulate matter. The article presents the results of combined elemental, chemical and isotopic analyses of particulate matter PM10 at two contrasting urban environments during winter and summer seasons. Daily PM10 samples were collected during the summer and winter seasons of 2018/2019 at two stations belonging to the network monitoring air quality in the city. Mean PM10 concentrations at traffic-dominated stations were equal to 35 ± 7 µg/m3 and 76 ± 28 µg/m3 in summer and winter, respectively, to be compared with 25.6 ± 5.7 µg/m3 and 51 ± 25 µg/m3 in summer and winter, respectively, recorded at the urban background station. The source attribution of analyzed PM10 samples was carried out using two modeling approaches: (i) The Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) method for elemental and chemical composition (concentrations of elements, ions, as well as organic and elemental carbon in daily PM10 samples), and (ii) Isotope Mass Balance (IMB) for 13C and 14C carbon isotope composition of carbonaceous fraction of PM10. For PMF application, five sources of particulate matter were identified for each station: fossil fuel combustion, secondary inorganic aerosols, traffic exhaust, soil, and the fifth source which included road dust, industry, construction work. The IMB method allowed the partitioning of the total carbon reservoir of PM10 into carbon originating from coal combustion, from biogenic sources (natural emissions and biomass burning) and from traffic. Both apportionment methods were applied together for the first time in the Krakow agglomeration and they gave consistent results.
Highlights
Air pollution affects the quality of life of more than a half of the global population living in cities and urban agglomerations
According to the GIOS report from 2014 [6], the level of metals (As, Cd, Ni, Pb) in the air was below the limit values and the Krakow agglomeration was classified as class 1
Protection at stations belonging and Protection at two stations belonging the airair-quality monitoring network operating in Krakow: (i) the station AlejatoKrasinskiego quality monitoring network operating in Krasinskiego (AK), sta(AK), representing the region of the city dominated by traffic emissions, and (ii)the representing the region of the city dominated by traffic emissions, and (ii) the station Zloty tion Zloty Rog (ZR), representing urban background conditions
Summary
Air pollution affects the quality of life of more than a half of the global population living in cities and urban agglomerations. According to the GIOS report from 2014 [6], the level of metals (As, Cd, Ni, Pb) in the air was below the limit values and the Krakow agglomeration was classified as class 1 (the highest pollution concentrations in zone are below the bottom of the assessment threshold). Intensive measurements (1 h measurements for every day) at the monitoring stations in the city are required for NO2 (Class 3b—the highest pollution concentrations in the zone are above the top assessment threshold and simultaneously above the limit value). Intensive measurements at the monitoring stations are required for SO2, connected with information from other sources such as mathematical modeling and indicative measurements (Class 2—Highest pollution concentrations in the zone are between the top and the lower assessment threshold). Data source: [6, 7]
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