Investigating air quality impacts of cruise ship and ferry emissions in James Bay, Victoria, BC, Canada

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate air quality in the James Bay neighbourhood of Victoria, BC, Canada, and determine the effects of emissions from cruise ships and ferries on local air quality. A combination of field monitoring and air quality modeling conducted during the 2007 cruise ship season in Victoria is used to achieve this objective. Pollutants examined include nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). Field monitoring provides long-term average concentration levels throughout the area, while the California Puff Model (CALPUFF) is used to predict concentrations from ferry and cruise ship sources at shorter time periods (1-hour and 24-hour). The two methodologies used for this research quantify air quality in James Bay and establish a baseline of concentration levels which can be referred to during any future air quality studies in the area. Results show possible, yet infrequent, exceedences of Capital Regional District and World Health Organization 1-hour NO2 and 24-hour SO2 air quality guidelines in the study domain. The potential implications of these exceedences on health of residents will be assessed by the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/1697
Date31 August 2009
CreatorsPoplawski, Karla
ContributorsKeller, Peter
Source SetsUniversity of Victoria
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
RightsAvailable to the World Wide Web

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