Air quality monitoring in Central Asia and   the Caucasus

Telling, Steve; Stacey, Brian; Mansimov, Rzakhan; Hajiev, Abdul; Gasan-Zade, Zaki; Abbasov, Gazanfar; Chub, Victor; Ososkova, Tatyana; Nazarova, Valentina; Sventsiskaya,Olga; Kojima, Masami; Bacon, Robert; Fodor, Martin; Lovei, Magda

Air quality monitoring in Central Asia and the Caucasus

The report summarizes the air quality monitoring component, as part of the regional study on Cleaner Transportation Fuels for Urban Air Quality Improvement in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and intends to implement environmental air quality monitoring for key air pollutants in two cities, Baku (Azerbaijan), and Tashkent (Uzbekistan), and, assess the current air quality monitoring system, providing recommendations for improvement. The methodology for sample collection, and analysis employed in Central Asia and the Caucasus are common to all former Soviet Union republics, whereas the continuous data from automatic analyzers, show the variability, and transient nature of pollution episodes, none of which could be captured from the sampling strategy currently in use in those countries. In Central Asia and the Caucasus, only total suspended particulates (which include coarse particulates having no impact on human health) have been measured, and no data are available for fine particulates, thus, there are many shortcomings in the measurement of total suspended particulates. Recommendations to improve current systems of air quality monitoring include: sampling integrity; site maintenance (overgrowing vegetation will act as a sink for acidic pollutants, compromising the validity of data); site locations (deploy sites among varied industrial/rural/suburban areas); sample collection methodology; filter collection systems (longer lead and particulate sampling); and, measure pollutants on a regular basis.

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