Study of Air Pollution Emitted from Traffic Activity in Dammam Cities

(Mahmoud Fathi Mohamed Cherkaoui)

---

Abstract

Nowadays, air pollution is considered one of the most important environmental problems in the world, particularly in the industrial and heavily populated countries. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is characterized by the rapid development in the industrial and commercial activities and hence, traffic activity is expected to be the most source of air pollution in the kingdom. This study is aimed to assess traffic air pollution levels in the three urban Dammam Cities (Dammam, Khobar and Dahran). In each city, two locations were statistically randomly selected, one represents a heavy traffic street and the other represents a residential area with no traffic activity. In each location, levels of six air pollutants were assessed at different day times, during weekdays and weekends and during summer and winter seasons. It is found that levels of all air pollutants in the heavy traffic streets are much higher than those in the residential areas. It is noticed also that levels of these pollutants during the weekday are much higher than those in the weekends (Fridays) in which, pollutant levels in the morning period are much lower than the evening period. In the summer months, levels of air pollutants are higher than levels of the same pollutants in the winter months. Four of the six pollutants have levels higher than the local and international air quality standards. All of these observations confirm that the traffic activity is the main responsible for air pollution problem in urban Dammam Cities and at any urban city in the world.
PDF

References