Research on air pollution by PM10 and NO2 pollutants in Slovakia from 2016 to 2022 years

Abstract

In this paper we deal with the impact of PM10 and NO2 pollutants in selected urban-traffic, urban-background, and rural-background air quality stations in Slovakia in the period of 2016-2022 years. We selected only 26 air quality stations (AQS) out of 55 from National Air Quality Monitoring Network (NAQMN) which are managed with Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMI). We compared the average annual concentrations of PM10 and NO2 pollutants of urban-traffic, urban-background, and rural-background stations. The specific aim of this study is to demonstrate the decreasing trend of PM10 and NO2 pollutants in Slovakia and we aim to statistically prove the concentrations are lower at rural stations than at urban-traffic stations due to anthropogenic activity – traffic and industry. In conclusion, we proved that the lowest values are measured at rural-background stations. We undoubtedly proved that the higher concentrations of PM10 and NO2 are measured in agglomerations at urban-traffic stations. We statistically proved that concentrations of NO2 pollutants are 83 % and PM10 pollutants are 34 % lower at rural-background stations than at urban-traffic stations. We proved a decreasing trend of concentration of PM10 and NO2 pollutants in the period from 2016 to 2022 for both types of stations.