High-resolution spatial patterns of long-term mean concentrations of air pollutants in Haifa Bay area

High-resolution maps of the mean concentrations of SO2SO2, NO, NO2NO2, O3O3, and PM10PM10 in the period 2002–2004 were produced using half-hourly data from the local air quality monitoring network in Haifa Bay area, Israel. The network consists of 20 monitoring stations within an area of 206km2, which encompasses a major industrial and power generation centre in the midst of a population of about 500 000. The pollutants’ spatial features agree well with their known sources and the expected dispersion by the prevailing meteorology. The ranking of their spatial variations agree with published observations on larger spatial scales. The high-resolution maps capture in a small spatial scale the NOxNOx and O3O3 cycle relationships expected by theory, and previously observed by analyses of monitoring time series. High correlation was found between the spatial patterns of the PM10PM10, NOxNOx and O3O3, whereas the correlation between the spatial features of the PM10PM10 and SO2SO2 is low. This suggests that the traffic, a major source of NOxNOx, rather than industry, the major source of SO2SO2, is the main contributor to the anthropogenic PM10PM10 in the study area. This inference is corroborated by the low sulphur to nitrogen ratio throughout the region, which is typical of traffic-dominated pollution. A general conclusion drawn from this study is that high-resolution monitoring and mapping can significantly contribute to air quality management programmes in terms of both pollution abatement and exposure and risk assessment.