Meteorological parameters and air pollution in urban environments in the context of sustainable development

Abstract

In big cities, certain meteorological phenomena can affect air quality even in cases where the main sources of pollution such as traffic have low intensity. The air pollution varies greatly, depending on the emission source and the type of pollutant. In addition, the dispersion of air pollutants is influenced by weather conditions, as well as other factors such as the type of pollutant and regional and local topography. The air quality is one of the targets of the 11th goal of the UN 2030 AGENDA for sustainable development, also adopted at the national level. This study aims to correlate temperature and humidity with atmospheric pollutants, like PM10. The data were obtained by continuous monitoring for a period of 9 days (5 days when precipitation was recorded and 4 days when precipitation was absent) in which the relative humidity varying between 32-104% while the concentration of PM10 between 13-118 µg/m3. The measurements on air quality parameters were performed in the central area of Bucharest city, near an important boulevard with intensive vehicle traffic and sometimes traffic jams. During daytime period, it was observed that the temperature inversion could be the cause the accumulation of high PM10 levels near the road surface for some hours of the monitoring period.