title: Ranking the factors influencing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) build-up on urban roads.
abstract: An in-depth understanding of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) build-up on urban roads is essential for effective stormwater treatment design. Past research studies have pointed out the relationship between influential factors and PAHs build-up individually. However, these studies do not provide a comprehensive analysis of the relationships and the hierarchy of factors in terms of their importance in influencing PAHs build-up. This paper presents the outcomes of an in-depth investigation into the range of influential factors, including traffic volume, land use, distance to highway and roughness of road surfaces by ranking them in terms of their influence on PAHs build-up. A number of data analysis techniques including forward stepwise linear regression (FSWLR), principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression (MLR) were employed for the analyses undertaken. The outcomes confirmed that traffic volume is ranked first while land use and roughness of road surfaces are second and the third, respectively. Distance to highway did not show a significant influence on PAHs build-up. Additionally, it was noted that a high traffic volume tended to produce high loads of PAHs with more than 4 rings and the spatial variability of PAHs build-up were relatively higher in high traffic volume areas. These outcomes contributed to the formulation of a robust stormwater treatment strategy and generation of priority area maps focusing on the removal of PAHs.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, 518060 Shenzhen, China; Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), GPO Box 2434, Brisbane 4001 Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: liuan@szu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: An
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), GPO Box 2434, Brisbane 4001 Queensland, Australia; State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Yukun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), GPO Box 2434, Brisbane 4001 Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Kaveh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deilami
authors.affiliation: Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), GPO Box 2434, Brisbane 4001 Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Prasanna
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Egodawatta
authors.affiliation: Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), GPO Box 2434, Brisbane 4001 Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Ashantha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goonetilleke
mesh_terms: D004323:Drainage, Sanitary; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D016014:Linear Models; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011891:Rain; D014186:Transportation; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Multivariate analysis; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); Stormwater pollutant processes; Stormwater quality; Stormwater treatment design