Considerations on Air Pollution and Vehicle Traffic in the Central Zone of Curitiba/PR

Abstract

This work treats air pollution in the city of Curitiba, state of Paraná, and its relationship with the vehicle traffic volume in the center region of this city. According to data from the City hall (2016) the vehicles are the main source of air pollution, , what makes the regions of the city with the heaviest traffic the ones with the worst air quality. For this analysis, were selected Particulate Matter (PM 10), Tropospheric Ozon (O3) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) data, collected at the air quality monitoring station located at the Ouvidor Pardinho Square, provided by the Environmental Institue of Paraná (IAP) at the central region of the city, for the year of 2013. These data were crossed with total traffic information collected at speedtraps located in streets nearby the station for the same period. Graphics were organized showing the oscillation in monthly, weekly and daily scale from both variables, revealing the existence of a relationship between then. At the monthly scale, the relationship between vehicle traffic and air pollution was not clear enough, once that, at this scale, the climate have a stronger influence on the air quality, in the other hand, observing the weekly and daily scale, it was possible to see the influence of the vehicles and the peaks of air pollution.