Evaluación de la contaminación atmosférica, índice de vegetación y concentración de metales en zonas cercanas a estaciones de monitoreo en la Ciudad de Quito

Abstract

Environmental pollution, specifically air pollution, has serious consequences for the environment and people. According to the WHO, the number of people who die from the effects of exposure to air pollutants in internal and external environments amounts to 7 million people (PAHO/WHO, 2014). In addition, 9 out of 10 people breathe polluted air to a different degree (WHO, 2018). On the other hand, the anthropogenic activities of transport, exploitation of resources, use of energy, intensive and massive crops, emit millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, which has caused that in barely 200 years after the industrial revolution, the concentration CO2 has increased from 250 ppm to more than 400 ppm today (WHO, 2016.) The present investigation puts into play 3 aspects that coincide in the emission of pollutants, so an analysis of the concentration values of the criteria pollutants of three consecutive years monitored by REMMAQ and their relationship with the state of the vegetation cover of the areas near the monitoring stations. The vegetation cover data were obtained through images from the Copernicus S2 satellite for the years 2019, 2020 and 2022 with an extension of 500m around each of the 6 stations considered (Belisario, Carapungo, Centro, El Camal, Guamaní, Tumbaco), while the records of atmospheric monitoring values were obtained from the public databases maintained by the Secretary of the Environment of the DMQ Municipality for the three years. In addition, these results were compared with the amount of metals stored in the plant species "taraxacum officinale", obtained by atomic absorption. This plant species was considered for the present study because all the monitoring stations exist nearby. As results, it is determined that the Camal monitoring station is the one with the highest concentrations of particulate matter during the 3 years of analysis of results (2019, 2020, 2022), exceeding the maximum annual value of the ambient air quality regulations. On the other hand, the quality of the vegetation cover that has decreased the most is the one that extends around the Center station with a value of 0.15. In addition, in the analyzes carried out to determine Copper, Lead and Cadmium, a high content of these metals is evident, especially at the Belisario station.