Analysis of the impact of outdoor air pollution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on air quality.

Abstract

Rapid population growth, urbanization, and fossil fuel consumption have contributed to a massive decline in air quality worldwide. This phenomenon is more prevalent in developing countries, including Saudi Arabia. Even though, there are only a few published air quality studies available in the literature for Saudi Arabia. Hereby, I analyzed the annual mean concentration of common air pollutants namely particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) in Saudi Arabia using both model predictions and observational data. I found that in general, the level of these pollutants, except CO and SO2, were higher in regions with more population density such as Makkah, Riyadh, and the Eastern provinces, hence their association with traffic-related and industrial emissions. Surprisingly, SO2 levels were higher in regions that have volcanoes in their domain instead; thus, it is more likely that the degassing of these volcanoes has indeed contributed to its emissions. I also compared the annual average levels of PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 with the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQG). I found that both PM2.5 and PM10 levels in Saudi Arabia have extremely exceeded these guidelines. Therefore, residents of Saudi Arabia are at risk of adverse health effects caused by PM pollution.