Modeling impacts of industrial park activity on air quality of surrounding area for identifying isolation distance: A case of Tan Tao Industrial Park, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Abstract

Abstract Industrial factories have been addressed as the main contributor to the amount of air pollution in many urban areas around the world. The emissions of air pollutants from factories, combined with exhausted gases from automobile and domestic cooking activities, have placed enormous adverse effects on human health. Recently, air quality models, which usually figure out for industrial emission with representative indicators such as CO, NO2, SO2, and TSP, have triggered an application to identify a suitable isolation distance that could lessen affection on public health. Concerning to develop an air emission inventory for Tan Tao Industrial Park (IP) for three sources of points, line and area sources by using top-down and bottom-up approaches, this study aim to: (i) apply a system model of TAPM – AERMOD model to study the air pollution dispersion from the IP to the surrounding area, and (ii) identify a hygiene isolation distance for sensitive objects around industrial park, especially zones of community, based on their separating demand from contamination. Results show that the point sources are the dominant air emission sources of Tan Tao IP. Total emissions of Tan Tao IP in 2019 estimated at 413.15 tons of TSP/year, 280.9 tons of NO2/year, 621.99 tons of SO2/year, and 2720.21 tons of CO/year. Modeling results show that 1-hour maximum concentration of TSP, NO2, SO2, and CO in the simulation area is 581µg/m3, 4.069µg/m3, 5.478µg/m3, 40.695µg/m3, respectively, exceeding the standards. Especially, the pollution levels of NO2 were 20 times higher than the limit value, similar trends for SO2 (15 times higher). The hygiene isolation distance was suggested a widely ranged from 2910 meters in the North-West and in the rest directions of Ho Chi Minh City. Some sensitive objects such as residential areas, hospitals and kindergartens recently are inside the affected zone should be reckoned to have suitable solutions that keep their health safe. The method for calculation of hygiene isolation distances from industrial activities has a significant guiding not only for environmental safety action but also for public health protection.