Mobile monitoring of air pollution in Philadelphia neighborhoods

Mobile monitoring is a useful approach to measure air pollution in urban environments. In summer 2017, we used this approach to monitor air pollution by walking along two miles paths in four residential neighborhoods (Tioga, Milcreek, Chestnut Hill, and Northern Liberties) and one business district (Center City) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A total of 62 datasets were collected from the monitoring conducted during three time periods (morning, early-afternoon, and late-afternoon). Particulate matter (PM_2.5 and black carbon) and noise levels, and geolocations were measured using portable instruments (pDR-1500, microaethalometer, Extech HD600 noise monitor, and a Trimble Juno 3B GPS unit). PM_2.5 showed spatial and temporal variation within and across the neighborhoods. The Chestnut Hill neighborhood showed the highest PM_2.5 (18.86 ± 3.17 μg/m³) among all the sites. The correlation of black carbon and PM_2.5 was also the highest at Chestnut hill. Overall, black carbon followed similar temporal pattern with PM_2.5 suggesting the influence from traffic emissions. Noise levels were highest during the morning period at all sites except Northern Liberties. In Northern Liberties, the highest level of noise was measured during the late-afternoon. Overall the mean PM_2.5, BC, and noise levels (DBA) averaged 8.41 ± 4.30 μg/m³, 0.99 ± 0.45 μgC/m³, and 62.01 ± 3.20 dB, respectively in Philadelphia. Geographic Information System (GIS) is also being used to map the air pollution and investigate the spatial variability using land use patterns in each neighborhood.