Using a source-receptor approach to characterise VOC behaviour in a French urban area influenced by industrial emissions. Part I: study area description, data set acquisition and qualitative data analysis of the data set.
The global objective of this two part study was (1) to conduct VOC measurements in order to further understand VOC behaviour in an urban area influenced by industrial emissions and (2) to evaluate the role of these specific sources relative to urban sources. In this first paper a thorough descriptive and qualitative analysis is performed. A second article will be devoted to the quantitative analysis using Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) modelling. In the Dunkerque (France) area most industrial sources are situated in the north and the west of the receptor site whereas urban and traffic sources are located in the south and the east. A data set constituted of nearly 330,000 VOC data has been developed from the hourly measurements of 53 VOCs for 1 year from September 2002 to August 2003. It also contains meteorological parameters such as temperature, wind direction and wind speed. Using different graphical methods, the influence of the different sources on the ambient VOC concentrations has been highlighted at different time scales. In this work, the analysis of daily time series for the 53 VOCs shows the influence of traffic exhaust emissions because of the increases at traffic rush hours. Besides, the seasonal evolution of the VOC/acetylene ratio points out the influence of evaporative sources on ambient VOC concentration. Concerning other point sources, the variations of measured VOC concentrations for different wind directions and scatter plots of VOC hourly concentrations highlight the influence of some industrial sources.
Badol
Caroline
C
Ecole des Mines de Douai, Département Chimie et Environnement, 941 rue Charles Bourseul, BP 10838, 59508 Douai Cedex, France. caroline.badol@gmail.com
Locoge
Nadine
N
Léonardis
Thierry
T
Galloo
Jean-Claude
JC
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005602:France; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D007221:Industry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D012107:Research Design / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012621:Seasons; D014507:Urbanization; D014835:Volatilization; D014919:Wind
D000393:Air Pollutants; D007220:Industrial Waste