TITLE:
Air Quality Trends in Metropolitan Zones in Veracruz, México
AUTHORS:
Sergio Natan González Rocha, Juan Cervantes Pérez, José M. Baldasano Recio
KEYWORDS:
Air Pollution, Air Quality Management, Air Quality Trends, NO2, O3, PM10, PM2.5, SO2, Veracruz
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Air Pollution,
Vol.5 No.2,
June
17,
2016
ABSTRACT: Mexico
and currently in Veracruz state, there are metropolitan zones (MZ) growing. Therefore,
main objective in this paper is to analyze new data and AQ trends during
01.09.2013 to 30.06.2015 of two new AQ monitoring stations installed in Xalapa
and Minatitlan MZ in 2013-year. The methodology applied used quality criteria
to the datasets, followed by data validation and statistics for further
analysis to determine the hourly, weekly and yearly trends of NO2, O3,
SO2, PM10 and PM2.5. Indicators were compared
with Mexican standards, CAI-LAC report, WHO guidelines, EU and USA standards to
evaluate the AQ in both sites. We observed AQ trends from moderate to bad in
Xalapa and Minatitlan MZ where the PM10 and PM2.5 surpassed the WHO guidelines and Mexican standards. O3 and SO2 in Xalapa presented a quality from good to moderate and in Minatitlan sometimes
were from moderate to bad. NO2 did not exceed the value limits of
Mexican standards, only Xalapa has exceeded the WHO guidelines. In Minatitlan,
the Mexican limits were not exceeded. Concluding, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were the main problem. Others pollutants that influenced the AQ
were O3, NO2 and SO2 in Minatitlan MZ due
probably to meteorology, site conditions, location and oil and petrochemical
industries. In Xalapa, MZ NO2 and SO2 are attributed
mainly to road transport.