Highly spatially resolved emission inventory of selected air pollutants in kuala lumpur's urban environment

Abstract Atmospheric pollutant emissions from industry and traffic are causing pressing air quality and climate issues in urban areas. This study aims to estimate the emissions from road transport and small industry in Kuala Lumpur, and to review the spatial distribution of the estimated emissions. The emission data for 2015 from small industries and road traffic for PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2 and NOx was collated, processed and then aggregated at a 1 km2 resolution using the Geographic Information System (GIS) and emissions inventory database software tools: ArcGIS and the Emission Inventory Toolkit (EMIT) respectively. The results from this study show that the total emissions for PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2 and NOx are 8234.4, 3991.7, 2589.3, 5168.8, and 56927 t/y respectively, where close to 99% of the total estimated emissions originated from road traffic sources. On average, Kuala Lumpur population emit 4.55, 2.21, 1.43, 2.86 and 31.5 kg/y/person of PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2 and NOx respectively which are in range with per capita emission of pollutants in other cities in the world such as Kolkata and Ho Chi Minh City. The spatial resolution of estimated emissions are mainly concentrated in the central grid cells of Kuala Lumpur and in good agreement with road pollution sources. The results show that the majority of the emissions arise from road sources, mainly because emission from other source types have been neglected and data is unavailable.