Pre-Publicación
Assessment of the NO2 distribution and relationship with traffic load in the Caribbean coastal city
Registro en:
Corporación Universidad de la Costa
REDICUC - Repositorio CUC
Autor
Agudelo-Castañeda, Dayana Milena
De Paoli, Fabrício
MORGADO GAMERO, WENDY BEATRIZ
Mendoza Hernandez, Martha
Parody, Alexander
Maturana, Aymer
Calesso Teixeira, Elba
Institución
Resumen
NO2 ambient concentrations were measured in a coastal Caribbean city. Barranquilla is a
Caribbean city located in the North of Colombia that has approximately 1.200.000 inhabitants
and possesses a warm, humid climate. In order to obtain the concentration of the contaminant
in an adequate resolution, 137 passive diffusion tubes from Gradko© were installed. Diffusion
passive tubes prepared with 20% TEA/water were located at the roadside between 1 and 5 m
from the kerb edge. The sampling period was two weeks, from 3/16/2019 to 3/30/2019. Samples
were analyzed on the UV CARY1 spectrophotometer by Gradko©. Results showed an average
of 19.92 ±11.50 µg/m3
, with a maximum and minimum value of 70.27 and 0.57 µg/m3
,
respectively. Spatial NO2 correlation with low traffic load was higher than with maximum
traffic. The expected results include analyzing the areas of the city with high concentrations of
this pollutant that exceed the WHO guidelines in six (6) points. Overall, the multiregression
analysis is a very effective method to enrich the understanding of NO2 distributions. It can
provide scientific evidence for the relationship between NO2 and traffic, beneficial for
developing the targeted policies and measures to reduce NO2 pollution levels in hot spots. This
research may subsidize knowledge to serve as a tool for environmental and health authorities.