Spatial-temporal Variations in Air Pollution in Busan Metropolitan City (2010~2018)

Busan is a representative seaport in Korea and has characteristics including commercial, industrial and residential areas. In this study, in order to evaluate the status of air quality in Busan metropolitan city, the levels of the five major air pollutants (such as PM10, PM2.5, NO₂, SO₂ and O₃) were analyzed by year, month, autonomous district and measurement station. As as result, the ambient levels of the four substances except O₃ have been shown to decrease steadily since 2010. We found that the levels of air pollutants in Busan are heavily influenced by the season. When analyzing the correlation between pollutants, PM10 showed a high correlation with PM2.5 (r²=0.70), but little correlation with ozone (r²=0.04). As a result of analyzing the levels of air pollutants according to the characteristics of the autonomous district, the concentrations of SO₂ and O₃ were higher in autonomous districts containing ports (Yeongdo-gu and Jung-gu) than in other autonomous districts. On the other hand, the levels of PM10 and PM2.5 were considerably higher in the industrial areas (Sasang-gu and Saha-gu) than other areas. In addition, it was also confirmed that the levels of air pollutant differed significantly depending on the location of the monitoring site, even if they were installed in the same autonomous district.