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Integral classification of air quality in European cities

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The journal was founded in 2007

V.S. Tikunov, S.K. Belousov

Section: Monitoring of natural and anthropogenically disturbed areas

The article presents a method of integral assessment of air quality in European. The approaches to the integrated assessment of air quality in Russia and other countries have a number of significant differences in the set of used indicators and in the methodology for obtaining its integral characteristics. The air pollution index (IZA) used in Russia is cumulative and includes hazardous pollutants with low absolute concentrations, while the Air Quality Index (AQI) widely used in Europe and the United States shows the quality of atmospheric air by the largest pollutant without considering the hazard classes of substances. This leads to weak compatibility of assessments made in Russia and those made in other countries. In the study, the Air Quality Index and the Index of Atmospheric Pollution were calculated, as well as their comparison was carried out for European cities. The results obtained using two approaches to the assessment make it possible to reduce shortcomings of indices and give a more detailed characterization of the air quality in cities. The research shows that multiparameter classification made by one of air quality indices perform weak, but using both indices at the same time significantly improve results. It is possible to make a relevant cities air quality classification by the main pollutants using both AQI and IZA. Cities in air quality classes form clear-cut clusters that strongly correlate with current economical zoning in Europe.

Keywords: integral indices, air quality, air quality index, multiparameter pollutant classification

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Article published in number 1 for 2023
DOI: 10.25750/1995-4301-2023-1-047-055