Abstract
Harbours are important hubs for economic growth in both tourism and commercial activities. They are also an environmental burden being a source of atmospheric pollution often localized near cities and industrial complexes. The aim of this study is to quantify the relative contribution of maritime traffic and harbour activities to atmospheric pollutant concentration in the Venice lagoon. The impact of ship traffic was quantified on various pollutants that are not directly included in the current European legislation for shipping emission reduction: (i) gaseous and particulate PAHs; (ii) metals in PM10; and (iii) PM10 and PM2.5. All contributions were correlated with the tonnage of ships during the sampling periods and results were used to evaluate the impact of the European Directive 2005/33/EC on air quality in Venice comparing measurements taken before and after the application of the Directive (year 2010). The outcomes suggest that legislation on ship traffic, which focused on the issue of the emissions of sulphur oxides, could be an efficient method also to reduce the impact of shipping on primary particulate matter concentration; on the other hand, we did not observe a significant reduction in the contribution of ship traffic and harbour activities to particulate PAHs and metals.
Impact of maritime traffic on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals and particulate matter and evaluation of the effect of an European Directive on air quality in Venice
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Abbreviations
- POSEIDON:
-
(POllution monitoring of Ship EmissionAn IntegrateD approach fOr harbour of the Adriatic basiN)
- PAHs:
-
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- PUF:
-
polyurethane foam
- QFF:
-
quartz fiber filter
- ACY:
-
acenaphthylene
- ACE:
-
acenaphthene
- FL:
-
fluorene
- PHE:
-
phenanthrene
- ANT:
-
anthracene
- FLT:
-
fluoranthene
- PYR:
-
pyrene
- BaA:
-
benzo[a]anthracene
- CHR:
-
chrysene
- BbF:
-
benzo[b]fluoranthene
- BkF:
-
benzo[k]fluoranthene
- BaP:
-
benzo[a]pyrene
- BghiP:
-
benzo[ghi]perylene
- IcdP:
-
indeno[1,2,3-c,d]pyrene
- DahA:
-
dibenzo[a,h]anthracene
- MAL:
-
Malamocco
- PS:
-
Punta Sabbioni
- SF:
-
Sacca Fisola
- PMF:
-
Positive Matrix Factorization
- PCA:
-
Principal Component Analysis
- HCA:
-
Hierarchical Cluster Analysis
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the POSEIDON project (Pollution monitoring of ship emissions: an integrated approach for harbours of the Adriatic basin), grant 1 M-MED14-12, funded by ERDF funds and National sources within the framework of MED program 2007–2013; it was also supported by the Venice Port Authority and the “Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti–Provveditorato Interregionale per le Opere Pubbliche del Veneto–Trentino Alto Adige–Friuli Venezia Giulia” (Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports) through its dealer Consorzio Venezia Nuova. The authors wish to thank CORILA (Consortium for Managing the Research Activities Concerning the Venice Lagoon System) for the valuable assistance and logistic support during the sampling campaigns. The authors wish to thank the Regional Agency for Prevention and Protection of Environment of Veneto (ARPAV) for providing some of the chemical data used in this work. Authors also wish to thank Angela Maria Stortini, Silvia De Pieri, Elena Argiriadis and Italo Ongaro (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) for their help in sampling and analysis.
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This study was funded by the POSEIDON project (POllution monitoring of Ship Emissions: an IntegrateD approach for harbOurs of the Adriatic basiN), grant 1M-MED14-12, funded by ERDF funds and National sources within the framework of MED program 2007–2013; it was also supported by the Venice Port Authority and the “Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti–Provveditorato Interregionale per le Opere Pubbliche del Veneto–Trentino Alto Adige–Friuli Venezia Giulia” (Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports) through its dealer Consorzio Venezia Nuova. CORILA (Consortium for Managing the Research Activities Concerning the Venice Lagoon System) provided valuable assistance and logistic support during the sampling campaigns; the Regional Agency for Prevention and Protection of Environment of Veneto (ARPAV) provided some of the chemical data used in this work.
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Gregoris, E., Barbaro, E., Morabito, E. et al. Impact of maritime traffic on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals and particulate matter in Venice air. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 6951–6959 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5811-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5811-x