Estimation of the spatial distribution of maximum PM10 and PM2.5 concentration in Bandung City and surrounding countries using WRF-Chem Model (case study in July and October 2018)

Abstract

Abstract Bandung is one of big cities in Indonesia with high activities on industrial and transportation that will increase the air pollutant emission and causes adversely affect the public health. Based on that matter, monitoring of air pollutant concentration is urgently needed to predict the direction of pollutant dispersion and to analyze which locations are vulnerable to maximum exposure of the pollutant. Field monitoring of air pollutant concentration needs much time and high cost, but modeling could help for this. One of the models that can be used to predict the direction of pollutant distribution is the Weather Research Forecasting/Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model, which is a model that combines meteorological models with air quality models. The output of the WRF-Chem running model on July and October 2018, which has been analyzed visually, showed the dispersion pattern of PM10 and PM2.5 is spread mostly to the west, northwest, and north following the wind direction. According to the output of the WRF-Chem model, Bandung Kulon is the most polluted subdistrict by PM10 and PM2.5 with an exposure frequency of 22 hours (PM10), 24 hours (PM2.5) on July 2018 and 19 Hours (PM10), 14 hours (PM2.5) on October 2018. The correlation value for meteorological parameters is quite high in July 2018 (R = 0.9 for wind speed and R = 0.82 for air temperature). So based on the meteorological factor, WRF-Chem model can be used to predict the direction of pollutant distribution.