TITLE:
PM2.5 and PM10 Emission Inventory from Road Dust in Abidjan City
AUTHORS:
Sekou Keita, N’doufou Gnamien, Siélé Silué, Madina Doumbia, Alima Dajuma, N’datchoh E. Toure, Cathy Liousse, Véronique Yoboué
KEYWORDS:
Emission Factor, PM10, PM2.5, Road Dust Emissions, PM Modeling
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Air Pollution,
Vol.15 No.2,
May
26,
2026
ABSTRACT: Atmospheric pollution linked to fine particles constitutes an important environmental issue in Africa. The city of Abidjan (C?te d’Ivoire) is also impacted by this air poor quality related to intense road traffic resulting from combining factors such as rapid demographic, socio-economic and urbanization. This rapid urbanization is often poorly planned leading to the presence of important unpaved roads mobilizing important amount of dust to be released into the atmosphere contributing fine particle pollution. This work focused on establishing Particulate Matter (PM2.5 and PM10) emissions inventory related to road dust from 2010 to 2019 in Abidjan. The results showed that dust road emissions due to vehicles are highly variable without a specific trend, estimated at 991.8 ± 232.8 kilotons for PM10 and 146.8 ± 34.3 kilotons for PM2.5 per year. This lack of trend is probably due to their dependence on rainfall and vehicle category annual mean mileage traveled. Moreover, among the different vehicle categories contributing to the road dust emissions, trucks stand out with 70% and 50% of total emissions on paved and unpaved roads, respectively. Furthermore, the RD emission factors obtained in Abidjan are up to 50 times higher than those provided in the literature for high-income countries, where road infrastructure is often more developed. This inventory will enrich existing data and improve PM mapping and modeling in Abidjan, providing a valuable tool for developing public policies to reduce air pollution across C?te d’Ivoire.