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Land use regression models for Alkylbenzenes in a middle eastern megacity: Tehran study of exposure prediction for environmental health research (tehran sepehr)

Amini, H ; Sharif University of Technology | 2017

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b02238
  3. Publisher: American Chemical Society , 2017
  4. Abstract:
  5. Land use regression (LUR) has not been applied thus far to ambient alkylbenzenes in highly polluted megacities. We advanced LUR models for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene (BTEX), and total BTEX using measurement based estimates of annual means at 179 sites in Tehran megacity, Iran. Overall, 520 predictors were evaluated, such as The Weather Research and Forecasting Model meteorology predictions, emission inventory, and several new others. The final models with R2 values ranging from 0.64 for p-xylene to 0.70 for benzene were mainly driven by traffic-related variables but the proximity to sewage treatment plants was present in all models indicating a major local source of alkylbenzenes not used in any previous study. We further found that large buffers are needed to explain annual mean concentrations of alkylbenzenes in complex situations of a megacity. About 83% of Tehran's surface had benzene concentrations above air quality standard of 5 μg/m3 set by European Union and Iranian Government. Toluene was the predominant alkylbenzene, and the most polluted area was the city center. Our analyses on differences between wealthier and poorer areas also showed somewhat higher concentrations for the latter. This is the largest LUR study to predict all BTEX species in a megacity. © 2017 American Chemical Society
  6. Keywords:
  7. Air quality ; Air quality standards ; Benzene ; Forecasting ; Land use ; Sewage treatment plants ; Xylene ; Benzene concentration ; Emission inventories ; Exposure prediction ; Land use regression ; Land-use regression models ; Measurement-based ; Weather research and forecasting models ; Alkylbenzene ; Ethylbenzene ; Meta xylene ; Ortho xylene ; Para xylene ; Benzene derivative ; Atmospheric pollution ; BTEX ; Climate modeling ; Concentration (composition) ; Emission inventory ; European Union ; Health survey ; Numerical model ; Pollution exposure ; Pollution monitoring ; Prediction ; Regression analysis ; Sewage treatment ; Wastewater treatment plant ; Weather forecasting ; Air quality standard ; Article ; Concentration (parameters) ; Environmental exposure ; Environmental health ; Sewage treatment plant ; Surface property ; Air pollutant ; City ; Environmental monitoring ; Human ; Tehran [Iran] ; Air Pollutants ; Benzene derivatives ; Cities ; Humans ; Toluene ; Xylenes
  8. Source: Environmental Science and Technology ; Volume 51, Issue 15 , 2017 , Pages 8481-8490 ; 0013936X (ISSN)
  9. URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b02238