Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Oct 16;10(10):5130-45.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph10105130.

The measurement of dry deposition and surface runoff to quantify urban road pollution in Taipei, Taiwan

Yunn-Jinn Wang  1 , Chi-Feng Chen, Jen-Yang Lin
Affiliations

The measurement of dry deposition and surface runoff to quantify urban road pollution in Taipei, Taiwan

Yunn-Jinn Wang et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Pollutants deposited on road surfaces and distributed in the environment are a source of nonpoint pollution. Field data are traditionally hard to collect from roads because of constant traffic. In this study, in cooperation with the traffic administration, the dry deposition on and road runoff from urban roads was measured in Taipei City and New Taipei City, Taiwan. The results showed that the dry deposition is 2.01-5.14 g/m(2) · day and 78-87% of these solids are in the 75-300 µm size range. The heavy metals in the dry deposited particles are mainly Fe, Zn, and Na, with average concentrations of 34,978, 1,519 and 1,502 ppm, respectively. Elevated express roads show the highest heavy metal concentrations. Not only the number of vehicles, but also the speed of the traffic should be considered as factors that influence road pollution, as high speeds may accelerate vehicle wear and deposit more heavy metals on road surfaces. In addition to dry deposition, the runoff and water quality was analyzed every five minutes during the first two hours of storm events to capture the properties of the first flush road runoff. The sample mean concentration (SMC) from three roads demonstrated that the first flush runoff had a high pollution content, notably for suspended solid (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), oil and grease, Pb, and Zn. Regular sweeping and onsite water treatment facilities are suggested to minimize the pollution from urban roads.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dry deposition collection sites. (a) The Road A site was divided into five plots, which were utilized for the accumulations on days 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. (b) The Road B and C had a 30 m2 collection area, and were sampled daily over 7 consecutive days.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Photos of dry deposition collection. (a) Road A; (b) Road B; (c) Road C.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Site locations of the dry deposition and runoff sampling sites.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Site photos for runoff collection. (a) Pipe cleaning before sampling, Road F. (b) Runoff sampling sites. The left is Road D, and the right is Road E.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Accumulative dry deposition of the studied roads.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Particle size distribution of dry deposition.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The runoff quality graphs for the road sampling sites. (a) Road D; (b) Road E; (c) Road F.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Huang C.C. A Study on the Characterization and Control of Highway Runoff Pollution. National Science Council; Taipei, Taiwan: 2003. (in Chinese)
    1. Sutherland R.A. Lead in grain size fractions of road-deposited sediment. Environ. Pollut. 2003;121:229–237. doi: 10.1016/S0269-7491(02)00219-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhao H., Yin C., Chen M., Wang W. Runoff pollution impacts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in street dusts from a stream network town. Water Sci. Technol. 2008;58:2069–2076. doi: 10.2166/wst.2008.814. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhao H., Li X., Wang X., Tian D. Grain size distribution of road-deposited sediment and its contribution to heavy metal pollution in urban runoff in Beijing, China. J. Hazard. Mater. 2010;183:203–210. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2010.07.012. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Drapper D., Tomlinson R., Williams P. Pollutant concentrations in road runoff: Southeast Queensland case study. J. Environ. Eng. 2000;126:313–320. doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(2000)126:4(313). - DOI

LinkOut - more resources