Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.1-22, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
Long-term air quality data have of great importance for monitoring the results of air pollution control policies and assessing their respective impacts on public health. In recent years, long-term air quality evaluation studies are necessary in terms of the relation between the air quality and climate change as well. However, even at the same region, shifting measurement points and changing measurement methods with the advancement of instrumental analysis technology over the years have made difficult to access long-term data. In this study, a wide data series was obtained by gathering the results of old and new measurements since the 1980s when air quality parameters were first measured in Erzurum City, Türkiye, where the longest-term air pollution parameters were measured and published in Turkey. Then, the long-term air quality of the city was evaluated with time-variation (diurnal, monthly, and weekday cycles), chart-correlation, Theil–Sen method for trend analysis and polar-plots methods in the R software used. The periods to which the measurements belong have been divided into three groups; the TSP and SO2 manual measurements at six stations from 1980 to 2008, PM10 and SO2 measurements only at one station between 2005 and 2016, and finally PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NOx, CO and O3 measurements at four different stations to represent the air quality of city atmosphere since 2016. According to our evaluation results, the average particulate matter and SO2 concentrations before 2008 have been found 3 and 20 times higher than in the last ten years, respectively. The long-term average PM2.5 concentration has been 8 times higher than WHO 2021 annual limit (5 µg/m3). The reason of the high average value can be attributed to the dust transport and resuspension-induced coarse particles that are dominant in summer and spring, while combustion-induced fine particles for the winter. Traffic-related air pollution has contributed to increase in urban air pollution by 1.5–2 times, and the traffic-induced air pollution has been considered an important effect in the city atmosphere. PM10 and PM2.5 correlation is significantly high with 0.9. PM10 decreases in the north of the city centre, while it increases in the south area.