Assessment of Particulate Matter (PM\(_{10}\)) using Chemistry Transport Modeling in Agadir City, Morocco

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the effects of outdoor and indoor air pollution result in approximately 7 million early deaths each year. In Morocco's case, the economic cost of air quality degradation is about 1.62 percent of GDP. Also, several studies reported the significant influence of local meteorological factors on the PM 10 daily concentration during the synoptic climate conditions and cyclonic circulation. In this sense, Agadir city is a coastal city, and its proximity to the desert makes it very exposed to particles. Accordingly, this study allows, on one hand, to evaluate the performance and to understand the limitations of the WRF-CHIMERE modeling system used to simulate the maximum concentrations of PM 10 in the city of Agadir, based on observations made in spring and summer 2010. On another hand, in order to better understand the situation, the impact of meteorological variables and anthropogenic emissions on PM 10 is being investigated. The preliminary results of air quality modeling pointed out some PM 10 dispersion issues in the area of Agadir. In particular, the results highlighted the influence of temperature and wind speed, which were correlated with PM 10 concentration. Besides, CHIMERE simulations suggested that anthropogenic emissions control is essential to reduce PM 10 by up to 15%. The PM 10 underestimation is attributed to the meteorological observation/model discrepancy and the effect of emissions. The results underline the importance of meteorology on PM 10 dispersion and have significant policy considerations for Moroccan air quality strategy.

Predicting Particulate Matter (PM10) Levels in Morocco: A 5-Day Forecast Using the Analog Ensemble Method.

“…Although many studies have attempted to predict particulate matter using various tools (Agarwal & Sahu, 2023;Folifack Signing et al, 2024;Gul et al, 2022;Khan et al, 2022;Masood & Ahmad, 2023;Rahman & Kabir, 2023;Verma et al, 2023), research specifically predicting future levels of 𝑃𝑀 10 in Morocco remains limited. Some studies limit their use to a single station where the models were developed, producing only one forecast for the next hour or the next day (Adnane et al, 2022;Bouakline et al, 2022), or they were only validated at a single station, which limits the generalization of their models to other areas Ajdour, Leghrib, Chaoufi, Fetmaoui, et al, 2020;Saidi et al, 2023).…”