Application of GIS in Order to Analyze the Air Quality in Taichung, Taiwan

This paper presents an introduction of air pollution’s situation assessment in an urban area. The author uses the GIS, which combines the vehicle distribution model, pollutant release model, progress model and related data, in order to estimate the propagation and spatial distribution of traffic pollutants in the city of Taichung in Taiwan. This model can not only analyze the exact location of pollution, it can also predict emissions affected by changes in specific traffic conditions or strategic management. The results show that more CO emissions occur around areas located in the center or south of the city in Taichung, and the range of highway 1 suffer SOx, Nox and TSP pollutions more than rest of the city. Although the part of highway 1 within Taichung is not very long, it nevertheless plays a role in production of a significant portion of total suspended particulate (TSP), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx) in this area. Moreover, the prediction of several hypothetical designs suggests that the main effect of advanced engines on reducing TSP emissions is more than 10%, while the average speed increase of urban road traffic may reduce CO by more than 14%.