Characteristics of current roadside pollution under different environmental conditions fundamentals for the development of a new roadside pollution monitoring concept
Final Report Abstract
In a bilateral German-Polish collaboration and involving scientists from China, India, Nepal, Finland, Greece and Tajikistan, we studied typical traffic pollutants at roadsides, and investigated the possible use of magnetic parameters as fast and convenient proxy. For monitoring, we removed 10-15 cm of top soil near the roadside and replaced it by plastic boxes with clean quartz sand. At two sites, we additionally installed samplers in different heights (ground, 0.5 m, 2 m). Related to the aims of the study, we achieved the followings main results: (1) Within 24 months of exposure, magnetic susceptibility (MS) and heavy metal (HM) contents increased, but with highly diverse differences between sites. Significant correlation of MS with HMs and also with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was observed. (2) The origin of traffic pollutants was confirmed by increased contents of typical anthropogenic HMs (Pb, Zn, Cd, Cu) and a good correlation between Ti and Mo contents, which do not occur in natural associations. Ratios between particular PAHs and high contents of typical PAHs from vehicle emissions also imply traffic as the main source. (3) Systematic differences of MS, PAHs and HMs concentrations in samplers at different heights and distances from the road indicate a common pathway of magnetic particles and pollutants, and a dominant transport by splash-water. (4) Magnetite is the main magnetic mineral collected in the samplers. High correlation between MS and the total Fe content indicates that Fe mainly occurs as ferrimagnetic phases originating from traffic emissions. (5) The results show that under defined conditions, MS can be used as an indicator of soil pollution caused by traffic emissions. An appropriate roadside monitoring protocol based on magnetic signatures should best use a single thin (1-2 cm) layer of clean quartz sand protected against lateral translocation of soil. Long-term maintenance of monitoring plots turned out to be a logistic challenge due to vandalism, traffic influences, and weather conditions.
Publications
- Towards innovative roadside monitoring. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2012, Vienna
Ojha G, Appel E, Magiera T
- Mechanism of traffic derived pollution along roadsides. International Union of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy 2013, Merida/Mexico
Ojha G, Appel E, Magiera T, Wawer M
- Towards a monitoring strategy to assess the anthropogenic signature of traffic derived pollution. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2013, San Francisco
Ojha G, Appel E, Magiera T, Wawer M
- A method of monitoring discriminating pathways of traffic-derived pollutants. Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica, Vol. 59. 2015, Issue 4, pp. 594–613.
Ojha G., Appel E., Wawer M., Magiera T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11200-015-0522-9) - Characteristics of current roadside pollution using test-monitoring plots. Science of The Total Environment, Vol. 505. 2015, pp. 795-804.
Wawer M., Magiera T., Ojha G., Appel E., Bućko M., Kusza G.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.10.025) - Towards innovative roadside pollution monitoring using magnetic parameters as a proxy; Diss., Tübingen 2015
Gobinda Ojha
- Trafficrelated pollutants in roadside soils of different countries in Europe and Asia. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Vol. 226. 2015: 216
Wawer M., Magiera T., Ojha G., Appel E., Kusza G., Hu S.Y., Basavaiah N.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-015-2483-6) - Toward a cost-efficient method for monitoring of traffic-derived pollutants with quartz sand boxes. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Vol. 227.2016: 173.
Ojha G., Appel E., Wawer W., Magiera T., Hu S.Y.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-016-2858-3)
