Potential improvements on benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) mapping ETC/ACM Technical Paper 2016/3

13 Feb 2017

Iulian Petchesi

ETC/ACM Technical Paper 2016/3 cover

The pseudo BaP station approach shows quite high uncertainties in the pseudo station estimates, not meeting the requirement of the EC Directive for monitoring. Regardless this limitation, the use of the pseudo BaP stations in the mapping seems to be beneficial. Further examination with cross-validation shows that the map using pseudo stations based on PM2.5 gives better results than the one with with pseudo stations based on PM10. Compared to current mapping method, both perform slightly better. The best results are given by the method using pseudo PM2.5 rural and urban background maps. When the maps are compared by their relative interpolation standard error, the best results are obtained at the method using pseudo stations based on PM10 and the second best results at the method using pseudo stations based on PM2.5. The pseudo BaP stations in the interpolation decrease the interpolation error attributable to a higher number and better spatial distribution of stations.

Taking into account both the cross-validation and the relative standard error results, the most promising - for the time being with current lack of BaP stations - seems to be the method using pseudo stations based on PM2.5. Furthermore, this method could be potentially improved by including pseudo PM2.5 stations to increase the number of the pseudo BaP stations.

Prepared by: ETC/ACM members Jan Horálek1, Cristina Guerreiro2, Frank de Leeuw3, Peter de Smet3
1Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI), Prague, Czech Republic;
2Norwegian Institute of Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, Norway;
3National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands

Published by: ETC/ACM, January 2017, 33 pp.

Map downloads:
ArcGIS v10.1 (and v9.3) shape file sets with MXD for the maps and map image files:
Downloads: shape files and figure files

All relevant ETC technical papers