Identifying redundant monitoring stations in an air quality monitoring network

An integrated method is developed to identify the redundant stations in AQMN using a combination of correlation analysis, principal components analysis, an assignment method, the cluster analysis, and correspondence analysis. The new method is applied to Xi'an city's AQMN as a case study. The layout of AQMN of Xi'an city can be optimized since three redundant stations (XZ, GYT, and HWZ) have been identified and removed.252