Abstract
In Daegu, a road cleaning system was constructed in the central part of the city and has been operated from April, 2011. We evaluated the effect of the system on the concentration of $PM_{10}$ at a roadside monitoring site. The ambient $PM_{10}$ concentration data were logged every 1 min for a period of 20 weeks from May to October, 2011, by means of light scattering method, and then every 5 min data were used in the statistical analysis. The measured data were verified by comparing them with beta-ray data obtained at the same site. Correlation coefficient between the two groups was highly significant (r=0.79), though the absolute levels of light scattering data appeared to be approximately 2.8 times higher than the beta-ray data. Diurnal, daily, weekly, and monthly variations of $PM_{10}$ data did not show any evidence of decreasing effect owing to the clean road system. A comparison of roadside $PM_{10}$ data with non-roadside data also revealed very similar pattern, implying the variation of the $PM_{10}$ concentrations is mainly affected by the traffic conditions near the monitoring site. However, if the operating conditions of the clean road system can be improved, i.e. increasing the frequency and duration of water cleaning, the road cleaning effect may improve the air quality indirectly by means of removing the resuspended particles from the road.
