Spatial Modeling of Air Pollutants : The Case of Greater Cairo

Abstract

Due to rapid population growth, ambitious development and industrialization faci l ities. pollution can be considered the expensive cost for development .The aim of this study is to introduce the main spatial techniques applied to modeling air pollution and applying it on Greater Cairo during 2007. Spatial model ing for three air pollutants (1\02, S02, and PM10 1 measured by the monitoring stations network have been conducted. Four methods for spatial interpolation have been used which a rc; Inverse Distance Weighting (lOW}, Trend Surface Model, Splines. and Kriging. Data exploration and preparations required for applying kriging have been conducted including testing for normality, autocorrelation. and stationarity. Using Kolmogrov test no transformations were needed for N02 and PM10 while for S02 a square root t ransformation was needed to achieve normality .Using tests of similarity, the spatial stationarity has been assumed. These tests

include Mann Witney, Wilcoxon, KolmO!:,'TOV-Scmirnov, and LeH:n's test. Using root mean square (RMS). kriging and cokriging gave the best results for N02 and S02. However for PMw linear trend surface model gave the best resu lts. The main results of the study show•d that PM to val ues have exceeded the permissible limit in the stuticd area. But N02, and S02 have only exceeded their permissible limits at specific areas only.