Site selection for air quality monitoring stations and temporal variations of pollutants in Kütahya region

In the scope of this study, two air quality monitoring stations, one rural and one urban, have been established for evaluating the air quality of Kütahya region for one year. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realité III (ELECTRE III), two well-known Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques, were used to select the best location for both air quality monitoring stations. Sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ozone (O3) concentrations were determined using automatic analyzers. Ozone levels at the rural station were higher than the urban station while the situation was opposite for SO2 levels. Under the effect of residential heating, SO2 was at high levels at the urban station in winter and it was still high at certain days of the summer period. The reason of this situation is thought to be the emissions related with north and north-northwestern winds, as discussed by using pollution-rose-graphs. For the rural station, the absence of emission sources at dominant wind directions- east and west- caused low levels of SO2 concentrations. Observed high concentrations on some days are thought to be related with north-northeast winds, according to pollution-rose-graphs. Measurements and passive sampling results showed consistent high correlations by regression analyses through statistical software. Comparison of these concentrations with results obtained from air quality modeling would be beneficial. Multiple linear regression analysis was used for determining the relationship between meteorological parameters and pollutants measured at stations. During the calculation of ozone and SO2 concentrations, it was seen that not only meteorological parameters such as wind speed, temperature, moisture and solar radiation, but also NOx, and O3 and SO2 concentrations of the preceding day can be used.