Author(s)

E. Al-Bassam, V. Popov & A. Khan

Abstract

There is a growing concern in Kuwait for the air quality in the vicinity of schools. The problem is exacerbated at peak times of congestion, which adversely affects the traffic flow and air quality. Several primary pollutants have been observed to be excessive during the peak periods in the country. Air quality in the vicinity of a government school was assessed in March 2006 for a period of two weeks using an air pollution monitoring station, which continuously recorded various pollutants’ concentrations and meteorological variables at five-minute intervals. The results show that during the weekdays, the measured pollutants emitted from the road traffic next to the selected school, such as carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), were always under the allowable limits for Kuwaiti air quality standards, except for a single occurrence of increased NO2 concentration at morning hours. On the other hand, the values of non-methane hydrocarbon pollutants were found to be several times above the Kuwaiti air quality standards throughout the investigated period. The suspended particulates (PM10) concentrations have twice exceeded the limits of Kuwaiti air quality standards. A traffic counter was used to record the number of cars in the main road next to the school in fifteen-minute intervals for ten days during the monitoring period for air quality. Statistical analysis was used in order to test whether there is any correlation between variations in the CO concentrations and the traffic frequency during working days’ morning and afternoon periods. A relation was developed for predicting the necessary reduction in traffic based on the necessary reduction in CO concentrations. Keywords: congestion, pollutants, correlation.

Keywords

congestion, pollutants, correlation.