Geographic information system-based determination of priority monitoring areas for hazardous air pollutants in an industrial city

Industrial cities are hotspots for many hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), which are detrimental to human health. We devised an identification method to determine priority HAP monitoring areas using a comprehensive approach involving monitoring, modeling, and demographics. The methodology to identify the priority HAP monitoring area consists of two parts: (1) mapping the spatial distribution of selected categories relevant to the target pollutant and (2) integrating the distribution maps of various categories and subsequent scoring. The identification method was applied in Ulsan, the largest industrial city in South Korea, to identify priority HAP monitoring areas. Four categories related to HAPs were used in the method: (1) concentrations of HAPs, (2) amount of HAP emissions, (3) the contribution of industrial activities, and (4) population density in the city. This method can be used to select priority HAP monitoring areas for intensive monitoring campaigns, cohort studies, and epidemiological studies.