Correlation Analysis and Exceedence Factor among the Ambient Gaseous Pollutants and Particulate Matter in Urban Area
Abstract
Urban air pollution is rapidly becoming an environmental problem of public concern worldwide. It can influence public health and local or regional weather and climate. In the present study, an effort has been made to study the importance of gaseous pollutants with particulate matter. All the data were collected for a period of eight years (2002-2009) at three different locations (Fenner (I) limited, Highway building and Kunnathur chatram) representing industrial, residential and commercial cum traffic areas in Madurai city. The particulate pollutants SPM and RSPM concentrations were compared with gaseous pollutants SO2 and NOx concentrations. These particulate pollutants were highly compared with gaseous pollutants in all the sampling stations during the study period. It showed significant positive correlations with gaseous pollutants. The trends of pollutant levels follow the order of SO2<NOx<SPM<RSPM. The Exceedence factor was calculated for the pollutants at different sampling areas. It reveals that Madurai city is critically polluted by RSPM and SPM at residential and commercial cum traffic area. From these values, it is clear that the air quality is good at Fenner (I) Limited whereas it is low polluted and moderately polluted at Highway building and Kunnathur chatram respectively. The values of correlation co-efficient for all possible correlations among different pollutants are computed (range of r = -0.043 to 0.973). Highly significant correlation and linear relationship are obtained between the following pairs of pollutants SO2-NOx and NOx-RSPM at Fenner (I) Limited, SPM-RSPM at Highway building and Kunnathur chatram respectively.
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