An integrated strategy for air quality monitoring and management in industrial port areas

Abstract

Port areas are under increasing social pressures to minimise their environmental impact and to demonstrate their environmental commitment, which is a major challenge especially in the case of industrial port areas close to urban areas (Langenus and Dooms, 2018). In this regard, the relevance of port areas is recognised as air pollution hotspots worldwide (Cesari et al., 2014; Contini et al., 2011; Feng et al., 2019; Genga et al., 2017; He et al., 2023; Kwon et al., 2023; Merico et al., 2016, 2017; Minguillon ´ et al., 2008; Murena et al., 2018; Nguyen et al., 2022; Song et al., 2022; Tseng et al., 2021; Viana et al., 2009, 2014, 2020a; Winebrake et al., 2009). The same is true for the health impacts of shipping and port-sourced emissions, which include stack emissions as well as in-harbour transportation (on-road vehicles) and cargo handling (in industrial ports) (Broome et al., 2015; Corbett et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2019; Minguillon ´ et al., 2008; Mueller et al., 2023; Shin and Cheong, 2011; Sofiev et al., 2018; US-EPA, 2009; Viana et al., 2020b; Winebrake et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2022). Due to globalisation, the contribution of seaborne transport to global GHG emissions is predicted to increase to 17% by 2050 if left unchecked (Schnurr and Walker, 2019), therefore carbon emission reduction in this activity has become a new challenge (Hong et al., 2023; Meng et al., 2022; Sou et al., 2022).