Assessing the Impact of Port Bourgas on Air Quality During Different Seasons

Abstract

Bulk cargo handling operations is one of the major factors that may cause undesirable effect to the air quality of urban and port areas in Bourgas. The air quality monitoring of the port of Bourgas is needed to deliver reliable data for air pollution assessment in the area of the port, as well as for better insight of the impact of the port activities on the air quality of the city. Unfortunately, there is no information for the bulk cargo or open source events. There is no record on what type and amount of material, what size of the pile and duration of exposure to wind existed. Therefore, in this dispersion study of the particulate matter with diameter size smaller than 10 micrometers (PM10), we use as source a pile of arbitrary size and emission rate that give concentrations close to those observed in the centre of the city by the air quality authorities at wind speed of 5 ms^–1. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) AERMOD (Air DispERsion MODel) system is used here to illustrate the dispersion pattern and to show applicability for future use by the port authorities. The results showed that the central part of Bourgas might be polluted by port activities at southern winds, but those have low frequency. The easterly and southeasterly winds, which appear more often, bring the eventual pollutants from the port towards the lake “Bourgasko ezero” and the district “Pobeda.” Comparing monitoring data from the port and from different parts of the city, we revealed no difference in winter months, but higher concentrations at the port in the transition months April and September.