A Land Use Regression Model for Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide Concentration Nearby a Commercial Airport for Low-Cost Flights (Rome-Ciampino)

Background: Several studies suggest that airport emissions could worse air quality in theneighbourhoods. Aims: To evaluate the spatial variability of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in relation with the main pollution sources (airport and road traffic) using Land Use Regression models (LUR). Materials and Methods: 46 Palmes diffusion tube samplers were deployed within a 64 km2 domain centred in the Ciampino airport (Rome, Italy) over two 2-weekly periods (June 2011 – January 2012). GIS-derived predictor variables, with varying buffer size, were evaluated to model spatial variation of NO2annual average concentrations. Aircraft specific contribution to hydrocarbon concentration was estimated using a Lagrangian dispersion model (SPRAY). A stepwise selection procedure was used to develop the linear regression models. The models were validated using leave one out cross validation (LOOCV) method. Results: The developed LUR model included the product of traffic intensity and the inverse distance to the nea...