Application of a land cover indicator to characterize spatial representativeness of air quality monitoring stations over Italy

Abstract

In order to achieve a cost-effective control of air quality in one region and to evaluate effects on population of long term exposure to air pollution, the assessment of spatial representativeness of air quality monitoring stations is of fundamental relevance. In this work, the area of representativeness has been assessed by means of a synthetic indicator describing the dependency of concentration on land cover distribution. The rationale is that, the more variable is the indicator in the surroundings of the station, the less representative are the concentrations measured at the air quality station in the surroundings. Pollutants under investigation were PM2.5 and O3 and the CORINE land cover map of 2006 was used with ad hoc modifications. The variability of the indicator was explored within circular buffers around the sites, with increasing radii resulting below the established threshold of 20 % for almost all cases. Results showed that the methodology allows an useful and quick assessment of spatial representativeness of a monitoring site, without the need of dedicated measurement campaigns.