Design of an optimum air monitoring network for exposure assessments

• Published in: Atmospheric environment 1967, Vol.21 (6), p.1393-1410
• Main Authors: Langstaff, John, Seigneur, Christian, Mei-Kao, Liu, Behar, Joseph, McElroy, James L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: air pollution; Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; benzene; Dispersed sources and other; Exact sciences and technology; exposure modeling; Monitoring network design; optimum interpolation; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results
• ISSN: 0004-6981
• DOI: 10.1016/0004-6981(67)90087-X

Nonlinear programming techniques are frequently used to design optimum monitoring networks. These mathematically rigorous techniques are difficult to implement or cumbersome when considering other design criteria. This paper presents a more pragmatic approach to the design of an optimal monitoring network to estimate human exposure to hazardous air pollutants. In this approach, an air quality simulation model is used to produce representative air quality patterns, which are then combined with population patterns to obtain typical exposure patterns. These combined patterns are used to determine ‘figures of merit’ for each potential monitoring site, which are used to identify and rank the most favorable sites. The spatial covariance structure of the air quality patterns is used to draw a ‘sphere of influence’ around each site to identify and eliminate redundant monitoring sites. This procedure determines the minimum number of sites required to achieve the desired spatial coverage. This methodology was used to design an optimal ambient air monitoring network for assessing population exposure to hazardous pollutants in the southeastern Ohio River valley.