Exploring Land Use and Land Cover Effects on Air Quality in Central Alabama Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Abstract

Air pollution has been a major topic of debate in highly developed areas over the last quarter century and therefore mitigation of poor air quality for health and environmental reasons has been a primary focus for local governments. Particulate matter, especially finer particles (PM 2.5 ), is detrimental to human health, and urban expansion is thought to be a contributing factor to enhanced levels of PM 2.5 . However, there is limited research on the connection between land use and land cover change (LULC) and PM 2.5 emissions. Using high resolution LANDSAT imagery from the past 12 years along with ground observations of PM 2.5 mass concentrations in the Birmingham, AL region, we explore the links between the PM 2.5 mass concentrations and LULC trends. Utilization of GIS allowed us to seamlessly analyze county-based patterns of LULC change and PM 2.5 concentrations and display them in an easy to interpret manner. We found a moderate-to-strong correlation between PM 2.5 observations and the urban area surrounding monitoring sites in 1998 and 2010. We also discuss factors such as local climate and topography and EPA imposed standards that can confound these comparisons. Finally, we determine the next steps that are required to fully quantify the cause and effect between LULC and air quality.

Impacts of Anthropogenic Factors on Urban Air Quality in Lagos Metropolis

“…These marked variation in sulpur(iv)oxide, nitrogen(iv)oxide and fine particulate matter over residential, commercial and industrial land uses is consistent with the findings of Superczynski and Sundar (2011) who investigated the impacts of land use land-cover changes on air quality in Alabama USA and discovered higher levels of pollutants over commercial and industrial areas than residential areas, Offor, et al (2016) who reviewed the concentration levels of particulate matter in Nigerian cities revealed high levels of pollutants in commercial than residential areas, Jenq-Hwan, et al (2017) who examine the impacts of particulate matter on tuberculosis cases in Taipei city Taiwan, noted that higher levels of particulate matter was responsible for the intensity of tuberculosis cases, who investigated the impacts of land use on air quality in Wuhan, China stated that land use is the precursor for elevated levels of pollutants and Ipeaiyeda, and Adegboyega (2017) investigation of the concentration levels of air pollutants along traffic corridors of Ibadan city discovered consistent elevated levels of pollutants across commercial areas than industrial and residential areas in Ibadan city.…”

Household Level Consumption and Ecological Stress in an Urban Area

“…In this process, we validated the detailed land-cover map with multiple references by cross-checking the land-use-land-cover map of the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) [47] of Khulna city with Quickbird imagery, Google Earth imagery, Landsat 8 imagery (30 m × 30 m pixel resolution), and by visiting the field directly. For this purpose, we downloaded freely available Landsat 8 images from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website with no cloud coverage [48]. The whole study area was divided into a grid of 15 ft × 15 ft to ensure a readable and manageable file size (the smaller grid size produces more accurate values, but it creates a larger file).…”

Examining the Impacts of Land Use on Air Quality from a Spatio-Temporal Perspective in Wuhan, China

“…Other factors that may influence air quality should be taken into consideration when analyzing the impacts of land use on air quality [20]. The concentrations of air pollutants and their spatial distribution are mainly influenced by their sources and the meteorological conditions [44].…”