AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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On-road, Near-road, and Urban Background Measurements of Traffic-related Pollutants in Metropolitan Toronto, Canada
CHEOL-HEON JEONG, Jon M. Wang, Nathan Hiker, Kerolyn Shairsingh, Dennis Herod, Tony Munoz, Greg J. Evans, SOCAAR, University of Toronto
Abstract Number: 246 Working Group: Urban Aerosols
Abstract Traffic emissions represent a major local source of air pollution in urban areas and are strongly associated with adverse health impacts. The concentrations of traffic-related pollutants (e.g. ultrafine particles (UFP), black carbon (BC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO)) can vary spatially with distance from roadways, through atmospheric processes that can depend on meteorological conditions. Due to the strong spatial variability of the traffic-related pollutants, on-road and near-road measurements are needed to evaluate and monitor the exposure of populations living or spending time near major roadways to elevated pollution levels.
A near roadway monitoring pilot study was conducted at two near-road and two urban background sites in Toronto, with a view towards creating additional near-road monitoring stations across Canada. Toronto’s near-road stations are located within 20 m of major roadways. These monitoring stations were equipped with instrumentation for measuring traffic-related pollutants at high time resolutions (1 Hz, in most cases). The differences in traffic-related pollutants between urban background and near-road environments were evaluated by comparing the pollutant concentrations measured at these monitoring stations. The influence of meteorological parameters on the spatial variability was investigated. In addition to data from the four near-road network stations, NOx measurements at currently available air quality monitoring stations operated by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change were analyzed in order to provide better spatial resolution data and examine the suitability of the current monitoring stations for near-road measurements. Lastly, on-road measurements of traffic-related pollutants using a mobile laboratory were conducted during the summer of 2015 in the Greater Toronto area. This study provided traffic-related pollutant concentrations measured while driving on major roadways and near-road residential areas. The spatial extent of the elevated concentrations between on-road and near-road will be discussed.