Evaluation of the condition of air pollutants in Mashhad city at different stations by using the Inverse Distance Weighting method

Abstract

Mashhad City (located in North-East of Iran) is the second metropolitan city in Iran after capital which is Tehran. Every year, a considerable number of domestic and foreign pilgrims and tourists visit Mashhad and therefore taking air pollution in this city into account would be an inevitable urge. Environmental science engineers have found some solutions by looking at the map of dispersion of pollutants and combining them through Geographic Information System (GIS). In this research Mashhad City's air pollution data and geographic coordinates of 11 urban air quality monitoring stations have been gathered by referring to Environmental Pollution Monitoring Centre. Data gathered from those 11 stations in the year 2015, including Particulate Matter (PM 2.5), Ozone (O3), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Carbon Dioxide (Co2) were put into Excel (software) and five tables of Mashhad City's main pollutants (Carbon Monoxide, Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide and Particulate Matter 2.5 micro meter) were designed. Then using ARC GIS 9.3 (software), Geographic Information System analysis of dispersion of pollutants in the city was conducted. Finally, the analysis of the condition of air pollutants in Mashhad City was studied. In this study, using existing information on air pollution in Mashhad city and referring to the Environmental Pollution Monitoring Center and using the GIS, we analyzed the air pollution situation in the city and it was observed that in January, it has the highest levels of contamination. The pollutant responsible for this month is suspended particles.