Elsevier

Journal of Hazardous Materials

Volume 341, 5 January 2018, Pages 75-82
Journal of Hazardous Materials

Research Paper
Predicting PM10 concentration in Seoul metropolitan subway stations using artificial neural network (ANN)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.07.050Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Artificial Neural Network (ANN) predicted PM variations at 6 subway stations.

  • Outdoor PM, subway trains running, and ventilation were used as input variables.

  • The model predicted 74% of PM variations at 6 subway stations.

  • Platform shape and depth influenced the prediction performance.

Abstract

The indoor air quality of subway systems can significantly affect the health of passengers since these systems are widely used for short-distance transit in metropolitan urban areas in many countries. The particles generated by abrasion during subway operations and the vehicle-emitted pollutants flowing in from the street in particular affect the air quality in underground subway stations. Thus the continuous monitoring of particulate matter (PM) in underground station is important to evaluate the exposure level of PM to passengers. However, it is difficult to obtain indoor PM data because the measurement systems are expensive and difficult to install and operate for significant periods of time in spaces crowded with people. In this study, we predicted the indoor PM concentration using the information of outdoor PM, the number of subway trains running, and information on ventilation operation by the artificial neural network (ANN) model. As well, we investigated the relationship between ANN’s performance and the depth of underground subway station. ANN model showed a high correlation between the predicted and actual measured values and it was able to predict 67  80% of PM at 6 subway station. In addition, we found that platform shape and depth influenced the model performance.

Introduction

The indoor air quality of subway systems (known as rapid transit systems, metros, subways, the tube, etc.) can significantly affect the passengers health since these systems are widely used for short-distance transit in metropolitan urban areas in many countries [1], [2], [3], [4]. The particles generated by abrasion during subway operations and the vehicle-emitted pollutants flowing in from the street in particular affect the air quality in underground subway stations. Those particles contain heavy metal elements [5], while the vehicle-emitted pollutants flowing in from the street contain particulate and gaseous pollutants generated by the combustion of fossil fuel [6].

Studies thus far of the air quality in underground subway stations have focused on analysis of the distribution of particulate matter less than 10 μm (PM10) concentrations [7] and gaseous pollutants [8], as well as analysis of pollutants according to the ventilation characteristics of the underground space, the characteristics of train operation and the structure of the station [9], [10], [11]. Marsik et al. [12] and Yu et al. [13] reported that outdoor and indoor PM10 concentrations were positively correlated. There are also many studies on the risks to human health of the component properties of fine dusts generated in underground stations. Seaton et al. [1] and Karlsson et al. [2] reported that magnetite (FeO3) content in these PM10 generated in subways accelerates DNA damage and causes oxidative stress in lungs while Pope et al. [3] reported that prolonged exposure to PM10 can cause cardiovascular disease.

Most metropolitan cities worldwide have atmospheric pollution measurement networks to continuously monitor PM10 concentration in the atmosphere, with Seoul operating 31 atmospheric and 14 roadside networks. However, continuous measurement of PM10 in indoor spaces is done only in the limited number of stations because the measurement systems are expensive and difficult to install and operate for significant periods of time in spaces crowded with people. Therefore, continuous measurement of PM10 concentration on the platform is not a reality, with the systems generally installed and run only for specific periods of time. In addition, it is quite necessary to operate the ventilation system of underground station based on the prediction of air pollutants level because the transfer (dispersion) of air pollutants takes time, especially for PM.

Recent studies have adopted statistical techniques that predict concentrations using the concentration of other pollutants or past measurements. The leading statistical technique is the artificial neural network (ANN), which uses pattern recognition technology used especially in environmental fields [14], [15]. Chellali et al. [16], Grivs et al. [17] and Papanastasiou. [18] reported that ANN-predicted PM10 levels showed the highest performance over other prediction models while Perez [19] reported that ANN showed the superior prediction on PM2.5. Grivas et al. [17] used meteorological information such as wind speed, ambient temperature and relative humidity as inputs to predict fine dust concentration in the atmosphere, while Chaloulakou et al. [20] added wind direction as one of the inputs. Our literature review revealed that most studies predicting PM10 focused on PM10 in outdoor air. While outdoor PM10 are considerably affected by meteorological information, indoor spaces, such as underground subway stations, are affected by a multitude of conditions such as the pollution source or inflow (or outflow) of PM10 through the ventilation systems [7], [9], [21].

Here, this study predicts indoor PM10 concentration on selected subway stations using input variables such as outdoor PM10, the number of subway trains running, and information on ventilation operation. ANN model predicts indoor PM10 using input variables of one hour previous data also. As well, we investigated the relationship between ANN’s performance and the depth of underground subway station. We hope that this predictive tool could provide an effective ventilation strategy of underground station preventing passengers from exposure of PM10.

Section snippets

Target underground subway stations

This study analyzed the PM10 measured hourly on a platform in six selected major underground subway transfer stations (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2) in Seoul as shown in Fig. 1. The measurement method and the detailed results are presented in our previous study [7]. The platform at station A1 was the nearest to the ground at 9.8 m below the street surface, while the platform at station C2 was the furthest at 23.1 m. The platforms are divided into “island” type, in which transportation in both

Use of outdoor public data and indoor measured data

Official data on the air pollution monitoring network and the roadside monitoring network near (within 2.9 km) each underground subway station (www.airkorea.or.kr) were obtained as the outdoor concentration of our study as indicated in Fig. 1. Table 2 presents the measurement campaign period and the average with range of PM10_out and PM10_in.

PM10_out collected from the air pollution monitoring network near each of the six station showed the average concentration range of 31  52 μm/m3 while PM10_in

Conclusion

  • 1.

    Linear regression analysis between PM10_out and PM10_in showed that the average correlation coefficient (R2) of the 6 analyzed stations was 0.43 (0.18  0.63), whereas ANN model including additional input variables of subway frequency (SF) and ventilation rate (VR) showed a significant increase of correlation coefficients, 0.65 (0.39  0.81).

  • 2.

    ANN model with previous time variables, which predicts the current PM10_in showed a high correlation between the predicted and actual measured values for all

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Railway Technology Development Program(17RTRP-B082486-04) funded Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

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