Sustainable Development of the Historic Centre of Naples: The Impact of Vehicular Traffic and Food Service Business on Air Quality

Abstract

Monitoring campaigns were carried out to assess the impact of vehicular traffic and food service business on the air quality in the historic centre of Naples. These campaigns monitored fine particles (FPs) from 20 to 1000 nm, using a condensation particle counter (CPC) in four connected streets, during a period of four weeks, from 7 November to 7 December 2019. Two streets were pedestrian only, while the others had average traffic. The following variables were considered while analysing the data—street geometry, and traffic and food service business emissions. The results showed prevalent air contamination, with some critical situations. The FP concentration values in the pedestrian streets were similar to the average values measured at the roadside of other European cities. However, the FP concentration values measured on the streets with average traffic, were twice that of their European counterparts. Spatial maps of FP concentration were produced to assess the impact of food service business emissions at the street level. The maps showed an insignificant contribution to FP pollution. However, it must be noted that emissions of the food service businesses were not measured at the roof top level in this study. The aspect ratio (H/W) played a relevant role on FP concentration, as an increase in aspect ratio correlated to an increase in FP concentration. These findings showed critical preliminary information for the sustainable development of the historic centre of Naples, which should be confirmed through a long-term monitoring campaign.