title: Methodology for setup and data processing of mobile air quality measurements to assess the spatial variability of concentrations in urban environments.
abstract: A case study is presented to illustrate a methodology for mobile monitoring in urban environments. A dataset of UFP, PM2.5 and BC concentrations was collected. We showed that repeated mobile measurements could give insight in spatial variability of pollutants at different micro-environments in a city. Streets of contrasting traffic intensity showed increased concentrations by a factor 2-3 for UFP and BC and by <10% for PM2.5. The first quartile (P25) of the mobile measurements at an urban background zone seems to be good estimate of the urban background concentration. The local component of the pollutant concentrations was determined by background correction. The use of background correction reduced the number of runs needed to obtain representative results. The results presented, are a first attempt to establish a methodology for setup and data processing of mobile air quality measurements to assess the spatial variability of concentrations in urban environments.
authors.affiliation: VITO - Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium. Electronic address: martine.vanpoppel@vito.be.
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Poppel
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: Nico
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bleux
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter; D001335:Vehicle Emissions
keywords: Air quality monitoring; Background correction; Black carbon; Fixed monitoring; Mobile measurements; PM(2.5); Ultrafine particles