Determination of ambient air quality by using a Gaussian dispersion model in Canakkale, Turkey

An emission inventory of primary air pollutants based on anthropogenic sources was prepared for Çanakkale within an area of 170 km to125 km, which is located in northeast part of Turkey. The city is located in Marmara Region and is included in Marmara Clean Air Center to improve air quality in the city. The emission sources were in the city broadly classified as industrial, vehicular and marine traffic and residential heating emission in systematically. The emissions and air quality levels of four primary air pollutants, namely sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides were estimated. Data on activity levels of the major industries, fuel consumptions and passing numbers in vehicles and ships, natural gas and coal consumption statistics for residential heating activities were obtained and evaluated with the related emission factor from literature according to the source for calculation of the emissions for 2013. This emission data was used to determine air quality levels by using a Gaussian dispersion model (AERMOD). Finally, for the model validation comparison of the model results with measurement data obtained from 4 different stations was carried out in this study. While industry is most polluting sector for nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, most polluting sectors for carbon monoxide and particulate matter are road traffic and residential heating, respectively. Industrial plants using lignite and imported coal for energy production and some districts using lignite for residential heating are main sulfur dioxide emissions in the city. Additionally, comparisons of daily average and predicted and monitored concentrations show that overall accuracy of the predictions was relatively high. The overall accuracies of concentration predictions (d) were about the value of 61 percentages for sulfur dioxide and particulate matter and the value of 67 percentages for nitrogen dioxide.