Urban air quality evaluation over Kut city using field survey and Geomatic techniques

Abstract

Air pollution is caused by various sources such as cars exhaust, energy sources, petrol stations, industrial activities, and other sources. The aim of this study was to measure some air pollutants gases, representing the results by Arc GIS maps over AL-Kut city and finding the ways for reducing them. Twenty samples have been taken using Global Positioning System (GPS) for measuring the main air pollutants (sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), total suspended particle (TSP), and particulate matters (PMs). The measurements were carried out by several specialized portable equipment at afive months starting from November 2015 to March 2016. The distribution maps resulted from ArcGIS 10.2, display that the highest concentrations of air pollutants were in the center and north of the study area. The highest concentrations of pollutants were in November and March, whereas lower concentrations observed during January period. The average monthly concentrations of (TSP) measured during the study period was (504.4 μg/m3, 359.5 μg/m3, 32.2 μg/m3, 324.8 μg/m3, and 392.45 μg/m3) from November 2015 to March 2016, these results were significantly higher than the permissible allowable limits of the Iraqi national (350 μg/m3) and international allowable limits (150 μg/m3), except for January is founded (32.2 μg/m3) within the acceptable limits due to heavy rainfall. the averages monthly concentrations of (CO), (6.567, 5.165, 4.08, 5.454 and 7.25 ppm) were lower than standards limits for five months, comparing with the Iraqi National limits (35 ppm) and WHO Limits (9 ppm). Pollutant concentrations such as (O3), were within acceptable limits of Iraqi and WHO limits at all period of study, while other air pollution gasses such as (SO2 and NO2), their concentrations over the study area were within the Iraqi national limits but slightly over the WHO limits.