Assessment of Air Quality in two Different Urban Localities

This study assesses the air quality of two urban localities, Fahaheel and Al-Rabia City, to assist local authorities to generate information supporting the planning of pollution control strategies to keep pollutants within safe limits in the long run. In terms of diurnal and seasonal variations, almost all measured pollutants exhibited two peaks: one in the morning and another in the afternoon. These two peaks resulted from numerous activities (schools, open stores, traffic, restaurants and markets, and central heating) practiced in these two cities during associated peaks hours. Nevertheless, there were noteworthy differences in air pollutants’ magnitude (values) between the two cities. There were a number of exceedances of KUEPA air quality threshold values in both urban localities; the highest numbers were in NMHC and the lowest numbers were in O3 and CO. No exceedances were found in SO2 in Al-Rabia City. In an attempt to identify the most probable sources of air pollution, concentration roses were plotted for annual durations for both Fahaheel and Al-Rabia. Furthermore, the Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) model was developed to quantify the contribution of each prevalent source to measured emission concentration. Results show that the main emission sources in Fahaheel were petroleum downstream facilities and highway traffic, which accounted for 69% and 17%, respectively. In Al-Rabia City, highway traffic and the area’s commercial activity accounted for 79% and 13%, respectively.