Representativeness of an air quality monitoring station for PM2.5 and source apportionment over a small urban domain

Abstract

In this study, PM2.5 concentrations together with the water-soluble ionic compounds and total elements were simultaneously measured at 16 sites in the city of Varese located in Northern Italy within a domain of 2 × 2 km2. The center point of this domain consisted of an existing urban air quality monitoring station. The representativeness of the monitoring station for PM2.5 mass and chemical composition was estimated using a methodology relying on statistical/geostatistical analyses. Source apportionment by means of the Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) receptor model was also performed to evaluate the spatial distribution of source contribution throughout the domain. Very high soluble fraction was found for Cd, Sb, K and V, indicating the anthropogenic origin of those elements. The geostatistical analysis/mapping showed that the monitoring station captured the spatial variation of PM2.5 and most of the anthropogenic originated elements, e.g., As, Cd and V, whereas it did not captured the spatial patterns of the ones originated from both natural and anthropogenic sources, e.g., Na, Ni, Pb, K, Zn, Fe, Cr, and Ti. The CMB source contribution estimations in the monitoring station were at least 25% different from many sites of the domain for PM2.5. The significant spatial variation in concentrations and source contribution estimates showed that the monitoring station could not be considered representative for the air quality monitoring studies with exposure assessment and source apportionment purposes in Varese.