Development and Comparison of Air Pollution Exposure Surfaces Derived from On-Road Mobile Monitoring and Short-Term Stationary Sidewalk Measurements

Abstract

Land-use regression (LUR) models of air pollutants are frequently developed on the basis of short-term stationary or mobile monitoring approaches, which raises the question of whether these two data collection protocols lead to similar exposure surfaces. In this study, we measured ultrafine particles (UFP) and black carbon (BC) concentrations in Toronto during summer 2016, using two short-term data collection approaches: mobile, involving 3023 road segments sampled on bicycles, and stationary, involving 92 sidewalk locations. We developed four LUR models and exposure surfaces, for the two pollutants and measurement protocols. Coefficients of determination (R2) varied from 0.434 to 0.525. Various small-scale traffic variables were included in the mobile LUR. Pearson correlation coefficients between the mobile and stationary surfaces were 0.23 for UFP and 0.49 for BC. We also compared the two surfaces using personal exposures from a panel study in Toronto conducted during the same period. The personal exposures differed from the outdoor exposures derived from the combination of GPS information and exposure surfaces. For UFP, the median for personal outdoor exposure was 26â€344 part/cm3, while the cycling and stationary surfaces predicted medians of 31â€201 and 19â€057 part/cm3. Similar trends were observed for BC, with median exposures of 1764 (personal), 1799 (cycling), and 1469 ng/m3 (stationary).