Impacts assessment of air emissions from point sources in Saskatchewan, Canada — A spatial analysis approach

Air pollutants emanating from industrial point sources account for a large proportion of air pollution issues. Besides, emissions from these sources are technically controllable while other sources, for example, soil erosion, forest fires, and road travel, are subject to some unpredictable natural or economic factors. Therefore, most research efforts regarding air pollution control have concentrated on industrial point sources. In this study, an effective approach with the aid of spatial analysis is presented to evaluate the potential impacts of air pollutant emissions from point sources in Saskatchewan, Canada. Trend analyses are first carried out to demonstrate the temporal changes in the total number of and the spatial distribution of point sources from 1994 to 2008. Then, the IDW method is used to generate interpolation surfaces for main air pollutants emitted by industrial sources with the purpose of disclosing their emission patterns. Following that, 10 representative industrial facilities are screened out to estimate the impacts of PM 2.5 on the surrounding residents, aiming to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 304–313, 2015