Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Bayesian univariate space-time hierarchical model for mapping pollutant concentrations in the municipal area of Taranto

  • Published:
Statistical Methods & Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An analysis of air quality data is provided for the municipal area of Taranto (Italy) characterized by high environmental risks as decreed by the Italian government in the 1990s. In the context of an agreement between Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche—Università degli Studi di Bari and the local regional environmental protection agency air quality, data were provided concerning six monitoring stations and covering years from 2005 to 2007. In this paper we analyze the daily concentrations of three pollutants highly relevant in such an industrial area, namely SO2, NO2 and PM10, with the aim of reconstructing daily pollutants concentration surfaces for the town area. Taking into account the large amount of sparse missing data and the non normality affecting pollutants’ concentrations, we propose a full Bayesian separable space-time hierarchical model for each pollutant concentration series. The proposed model allows to embed missing data imputation and prediction of pollutant concentration. We critically discuss the results, highlighting advantages and disadvantages of the proposed methodology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Asrari E, Ghole VS, Sen PN (2005) Study on the status of SO in the Tehran-Iran. J Appl Sci Environ Manag 10(2): 75–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee S, Carlin BP, Gelfand A (2004) Hierarchical modeling and analysis for spatial data. Monographs on statistics & applied probability. Chapman & Hall/CRC, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Biggeri A, Bellini P, Terracini B (2001) Metanalisi italiana degli studi sugli effetti a breve termine dell’inquinamento atmosferico. Epidemiologia e Prevenzione 28: 1–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown PE, Karesen KF, Roberts GO, Tonellato S (2000) Blur-generated non-separable space-time models. J R Stat Soc Series B 62: 847–860

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Bush T, Smith S, Stevenson K, Moorcroft S (2001) Validation of nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube methodology in the UK. Atmos Environ 35: 289–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll SS, Cressie N (1996) A comparison of geostatistical methodologies used to estimate snow water equivalent. Wat Resour Bull 32: 267–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Cocchi D, Greco F, Trivisano C (2007) Hierarchical space-time modelling of PM10 pollution. Atmos Environ 41: 532–542

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilks WR, Richardson S, Spiegelhalter DJ (1996) Markov chain Monte Carlo in practice. Chapman & Hall, London, pp 116–118

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Le ND, Zidek JV (2006) Statistical analysis of environmental space-time processes. Springer, Berlin

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Pollice A, Jona Lasinio G (2010) A multivariate approach to the analysis of air quality in a high environmental risk area. Environmetrics 21: 741–754

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Primerano R, Menegotto M, Di Natale G, Giua R, Notarnicola M, Assennato G, Liberti L (2006) Episodi acuti di inquinamento da PM10 nell’area ad elevata concentrazione industriale di Taranto. poster presented at Secondo Convegno Nazionale sul Particolato Atmosferico—PM2006, Florence, 10–13 Sept 2006

  • Rajkumar WS, Chang AS (2000) Suspended particulate matter concentrations along the East-West Corridor, Trinidad, West Indies. Atmos Environ 34: 1181–1187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaddick G, Wakefield J (2002) Modelling daily multivariate pollutant data at multiple sites. Appl Statist 51(part 3): 351–372

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Spiegelhalter DJ, Thomas A, Best N (1999). WinBUGS Version 1.2 User Manual. MRC biostatistics unit. Software available at http://www.mrcbsu.cam.ac.uk/bugs/winbugs/contents.shtml

  • Wikle CK, Berliner LM, Cressie N (1998) Hierarchical Bayesian space-time models. Environ Ecol Stat 5: 117–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Serena Arima.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Arima, S., Cretarola, L., Jona Lasinio, G. et al. Bayesian univariate space-time hierarchical model for mapping pollutant concentrations in the municipal area of Taranto. Stat Methods Appl 21, 75–91 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10260-011-0178-8

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10260-011-0178-8

Keywords

Navigation