oalogo2  

AUTHOR(S):

Pohl T., Heweling G., Fischer C., Weber K.

 

TITLE

Traffic Influenced Nitrogen Dioxide, Ultrafine Particle and Black Carbon Concentrations at a Busy Urban Street in Duesseldorf, Germany

pdf PDF

 

ABSTRACT

In this study the road traffic related air pollution within a busy urban street canyon in the City of Duesseldorf, Germany was investigated. For the investigations the measurement truck of the laboratory for environmental measurement techniques of the HSD was equipped with different measurement devices for gaseous and aerosol species as well as meteorological sensors. The measurement truck was placed next to a stationary air quality measurement container of the Environmental State Agency of North-Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV). The measurement site is located at the Cornelius street, a direct north south connecting street through the city of Duesseldorf, which is highly frequented by road traffic with an daily amount of about 45,000 vehicles. The street is located within the low emission zone (LEZ). Additionally the pass through of vehicles with a higher weight than 7.5 tons is prohibited. Within this study over a period of several weeks the particle mass concentrations PM10, PM2.5 and PM1, and the particle number size distribution (PNSD) were measured over a broad range from 5 nm to 32 µm with a high temporal resolution. Additionally, an aethalometer was used to determine the proportion of black carbon in the particle ensembles. Gaseous pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide were measured as well. Nitrogen dioxide is a typical species originating from combustion processes. In this study the data from NO2 strongly correlate with ultrafine particle and black carbon concentrations and for this reason all three species are clearly influenced by road traffic. However, this effect is not so pronounced for the particle mass concentrations, which are additionally influenced by the varying local background concentrations. During the measurements, the averaged concentration for PM10 was on a moderate level at 20.6 µg/m³ (PM2.5 13.4 µg/m³, PM1 10.7 µg/m³). The averaged NO2 concentration was 54.2 µg/m³ during the measurement period, which is above the yearly limit value of 40 µg/m³. However, the hourly limit value of 200 µg/m³ was not exceeded during the measurement period of this study. The averaged particle number concentration (PNC5-250 nm) and black carbon concentration were on a low level compared with values from other studies at roadsides. The PNC5-250 nm was at 6,400 #/cm³ and for black carbon at 1.8 µg/m³. The lower values for PNC and BC are possibly explained as a result due to the measures from the clean air plan. The measurements of this study took place in summertime. The air pollution concentrations might be higher during colder times of the year due to domestic fuel burning. After all it can be stated, that the additional monitoring of ultrafine particles and black carbon is relevant and important to characterize the composition of the air quality at roadsides and offer a better understanding for the temporal resolution of air pollutants in cities. Moreover, estimations on the risk of air pollution for the human health can more precisely be specified.

 

KEYWORDS

urban air pollution, road traffic emissions, ultrafine particles, nitrogen dioxide, black carbon

 

REFERENCES

[1] Pope, C. A., Brook, R. D., Burnett, R. T. & Dockery, D. W. 2011 How is cardiovascular disease mortality risk affected by duration and intensity of fine particulate matter exposure? An integration of the epidemiologic evidence. Air Qual Atmos Health 4, 5–14.

[2] World Health Organization. 2016 Ambient air pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/250141/1/9789241511353-eng.pdf?ua=1.

[3] Bundesrepublik Deutschland. 2010 Zehnte Verordnung zur Durchführung des Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetzes ((Verordnung über die Beschaffenheit und die Auszeichnung der Qualitäten von Kraft- und Brennstoffen). 10. BImSchV.

[4] Löschau, G., Wiedensohler, A., Birmili, W., Rasch, F., Spindler, G., Müller, K., Wolf, U., Hausmann, A., Böttger, M. & Anhalt, M. et al. 2016 Umweltzone Leipzig - Teil 1 - 5. Messtechnische Begleitung der Einführung der Umweltzone in der Stadt Leipzig. https://publikationen.sachsen.de/bdb/artikel/27471. Accessed 9 November 2017.

[5] Cyrys, J., Peters, A., Soentgen, J. & Wichmann, H.-E. 2014 Low emission zones reduce PM 10 mass concentrations and diesel soot in German cities. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 64, 481–487.

[6] Weber, S., Kuttler, W. & Weber, K. 2006 Flow characteristics and particle mass and number concentration variability within a busy urban street canyon. Atmospheric Environment 40, 7565–7578.

[7] Birmili, W., Tomsche, L., Sonntag, A., Opelt, C., Weinhold, K., Nordmann, S. & Schmidt, W. 2013 Variability of aerosol particles in the urban atmosphere of Dresden (Germany). Effects of spatial scale and particle size. Meteorologische Zeitschrift 22, 195–211.

[8] Kumar, P., Morawska, L., Birmili, W., Paasonen, P., Hu, M., Kulmala, M., Harrison, R. M., Norford, L. & Britter, R. 2014 Ultrafine particles in cities. Environment international 66, 1–10.

[9] Vu, T. V., Delgado-Saborit, J. M. & Harrison, R. M. 2015 Review. Particle number size distributions from seven major sources and implications for source apportionment studies. Atmospheric Environment 122, 114–132.

[10] Bonn, B., Schneidemesser, E. von, Andrich, D., Quedenau, J., Gerwig, H.,. et al. 2016 BAERLIN2014 – the influence of land surface types on and the horizontal heterogeneity of air pollutant levels in Berlin. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16, 7785–7811.

[11] Amt für Verkehrsmanagement. 2015 Verkehrsbelastung: Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf.

[12] Weber, S. & Weber, K. 2008 Coupling of urban street canyon and backyard particle concentrations. metz 17, 251–261.

[13] Baumbach, G., Geiger, J., Hainsch, A., Hoffmann, B., Jacobi, S., Jäckel, S., Kaupp, H., Kuhlbusch, T., Löschau, G. & Müller, K. et al. 2016 Russ in luftgetragenem Feinstaub. VDI-Statusreport, 1. Auflage. Düsseldorf: Verein Deutscher Ingenieure.

[14] Löschau, G., Wiedensohler, A., Birmili, W., Rasch, F., Spindler, G., Müller, K., Wolf, U., Hausmann, A., Böttger, M. & Bastian, S. et al. 2015 Umweltzone Leipzig - Teil 4: Immissionssituation 2010–2014. Messtechnische Begleitung der Einführung der Umweltzone in der Stadt Leipzig. https://publikationen.sachsen.de/bdb/artikel/25641. Accessed 9 November 2017.

Cite this paper

Pohl T., Heweling G., Fischer C., Weber K.. (2017) Traffic Influenced Nitrogen Dioxide, Ultrafine Particle and Black Carbon Concentrations at a Busy Urban Street in Duesseldorf, Germany. International Journal of Environmental Science, 2, 410-417

 

cc.png
Copyright © 2017 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0