Optimal design of a multi-pollutant air quality monitoring network in a metropolitan region using Kaohsiung, Taiwan as an example

An air quality monitoring network (AQMN) usually performs the basic functio n of assessment of regional air quality and demonstration of compliance wit h ambient air quality standards in an urban area. Different pollutants, how ever, may present different characteristic variabilities due to their speci fic emission patterns, rates of diffusion, and transport and transformation behaviors. But the costs of siting in a pollutant-specific monitoring netw ork would be higher than that for a common network with respect to several pollutants monitored simultaneously. This paper presents a survey of multi- pollutant design principles and optimal searches for siting patterns of an AQMN using both simulation and optimization models as a combined tool. Whil e conservative, quasi-stable, and reactive pollutants are considered in the design principles, cost, coverage effectiveness, and spatial correlation c haracteristics are included in the multi-criteria decision making process. For illustrative purpose, a series of technical settings and two types of o bjectives were examined in the case study for the city of Kaohsiung in Taiw an.