Immission levels and identification of sulfur dioxide sources in La Oroya city, Peruvian Andes

José Abel Espinoza-Guillen (), Marleni Beatriz Alderete-Malpartida, Jimmy Hans Cañari-Cancho, Dennis Libio Pando-Huerta, David Fernando Vargas-La Rosa and Sadyth Jhocelú Bernabé-Meza
Additional contact information
José Abel Espinoza-Guillen: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina
Marleni Beatriz Alderete-Malpartida: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina
Jimmy Hans Cañari-Cancho: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina
Dennis Libio Pando-Huerta: Universidad Continental
David Fernando Vargas-La Rosa: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina
Sadyth Jhocelú Bernabé-Meza: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2023, vol. 25, issue 11, No 30, 12843-12872

Abstract: Abstract La Oroya is a city in the Peruvian Andes that has suffered a serious deterioration in its air quality, especially due to the high rate of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, which underlines the importance of knowing its sources of contamination and variation over the years. In this sense, this study aimed to evaluate the immission levels and determine the sources of SO2 contamination in La Oroya. This analysis was performed using the hourly concentration data of SO2, and meteorological variables (wind speed and direction), which were analyzed for a period of three years (2018–2020). Graphs of time series, wind and pollutant roses, bivariate polar graphs, clustering k-means, nonparametric statistical tests, and the application of the conditional bivariate probability function were performed to analyze the data and identify the emission sources. The mean concentration of SO2 was 264.2 μg m−3 for the study period, where 55.66 and 2.37% of the evaluated days exceeded the guideline values recommended by the World Health Organization and the Peruvian Environmental Quality Standard for air for 24 h, respectively. The results showed a defined pattern for the daily and monthly variations, with peaks in the morning hours (0900–1000 h LT) and at the end of the year (December), respectively. The main sources of SO2 emissions identified were light and heavy vehicles that travel through the Central Highway, the La Oroya Metallurgical Complex, the transit of vehicles within the city, and the diesel–electric locomotives that provide cargo transportation services and tourism passenger transportation. The article attempts to contribute to the development of adequate air quality management policies.

Keywords: Sulfur dioxide; La Oroya city; Bivariate polar graphs; K-means algorithm; Conditional bivariate probability function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-022-02592-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:25:y:2023:i:11:d:10.1007_s10668-022-02592-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-022-02592-0

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().