DM releases vehicle pollution survey results
Study conducted under the project called On-road Vehicle Emission Measurement Using Remote Sensing Device (RSD) on Dubai roads has revealed that the vehicle pollution in Dubai compared to American standards is around 13% (for vehicles using petrol) whereas the pollution rate is 2.5% in Virginia US, 2%in Michigan and 4.7% in Canada.
According to the study the pollution rate of vehicles using diesel in Dubai is at around 19%.
Releasing the results of the study at a seminar in Dubai Municipality on Wednesday, Eng. Redha Hassan Salman, Head of Environmental Protection and Safety Section in the Environment Department of Dubai Municipality, said that the higher emission of pollutants in Dubai is attributed to the high temperature, which goes up to 47.5 degree Celsius.
Eng. Abdullah Raffia, Assistant Director General for Environment and Public Health Affairs, officials from different government authorities in the UAE and representatives of the private sector were present in the seminar.
Dubai Municipality conducted the survey at some 43 locations across the city in cooperation with RTA and Dubai Police during May 2007 to February 2008 with the aim of formulating effective strategies and policies to control vehicle emissions which account for over 75 per cent of the city's air pollutants.
"The idea was to measure pollutant levels in a vehicle's tailpipe while the vehicle is plying on the road. Five major air pollutants i.e. hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and smoke emissions were detected. The remote sensing technology helped avoid connecting the testing device physically to a vehicle," said Salman.
"This concept is an efficient tool to monitor large vehicle fleet and identify excessive polluters of great appeal. The systems operate by continuously projecting a beam of IR/UV light across a roadway and adopt IR/UV light absorption principle to measure the pollutants. Using this technology we could measure multiple pollutants in single pass," he added.
He noted that emission measurement was evaluated for both public and private sectors for Dubai and non-Dubai licensed vehicles covering taxis, buses (public transport, schools, and labourers), heavy vehicles such as trucks, trailers and private and public cars, in addition to age of motor vehicles and fuel fleet usage.
"Two factors point to a worsening air pollution situation in Dubai - the rapid pace of urbanization and motorization. Dubai's statistical data showed that motor vehicles increased by an annual average of about 12%. Dubai has about 541 vehicles per thousand population, which is higher than New York (444), London (345) and Singapore (111)," he explained.
He said there has been an increase of 30% in the number of vehicles in Dubai from that of the 2005 figures (465,000 vehicles including 5,000 taxis). "Vehicles in Dubai take 3.1 million trips a day, which is expected to increase to 13.1 million trips a day by the year 2020. This is precisely the reason behind embarking on such a project to know the percentage of vehicles exceeding the emission limit compared to other countries of the world," he added.
He said Environmental Protection and Safety Section had a vital role in reducing the vehicular pollution in the city. "We conducted a seminar in 1999 and started reporting smoky vehicles to the traffic police. We were the major force behind the UAE strategy for reduction of sulfur content in diesel," he added.
A detailed technical presentation on the On-road Vehicle Emission Measurement Using Remote Sensing Device project was delivered by Niranjan Vescio, General Manager, Remote Sensing Division in the Environmental System Products, Tuscon, Arizona, US, which was the company that supplied the equipment for the project.
Among the surveyed vehicles 87% (96,361) were Dubai registered and the rest of the 13% (13,808) were registered in the other emirates. The survey covered 1,085 heavy buses and 8,895 light vehicles. It found that 83% of the vehicles using petrol plying on Dubai roads were newer than 2001 whereas the vehicles using diesel were 76%.
When compared to Los Angeles the study said that both Dubai and Los Angeles are 'car cultures' with tremendous mobile source emission projected. Regarding mobile source air pollution reduction strategy, Vescio said that better fuel, technology, inspection/maintenance and enhanced RSD screening to compliment Dubai's intelligent transport system were the suggested options. He also suggested 10-year retirement for vehicles on Dubai roads as a feasible step to reduce pollution. (WAM)
According to the study the pollution rate of vehicles using diesel in Dubai is at around 19%.
Releasing the results of the study at a seminar in Dubai Municipality on Wednesday, Eng. Redha Hassan Salman, Head of Environmental Protection and Safety Section in the Environment Department of Dubai Municipality, said that the higher emission of pollutants in Dubai is attributed to the high temperature, which goes up to 47.5 degree Celsius.
Eng. Abdullah Raffia, Assistant Director General for Environment and Public Health Affairs, officials from different government authorities in the UAE and representatives of the private sector were present in the seminar.
Dubai Municipality conducted the survey at some 43 locations across the city in cooperation with RTA and Dubai Police during May 2007 to February 2008 with the aim of formulating effective strategies and policies to control vehicle emissions which account for over 75 per cent of the city's air pollutants.
"The idea was to measure pollutant levels in a vehicle's tailpipe while the vehicle is plying on the road. Five major air pollutants i.e. hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and smoke emissions were detected. The remote sensing technology helped avoid connecting the testing device physically to a vehicle," said Salman.
"This concept is an efficient tool to monitor large vehicle fleet and identify excessive polluters of great appeal. The systems operate by continuously projecting a beam of IR/UV light across a roadway and adopt IR/UV light absorption principle to measure the pollutants. Using this technology we could measure multiple pollutants in single pass," he added.
He noted that emission measurement was evaluated for both public and private sectors for Dubai and non-Dubai licensed vehicles covering taxis, buses (public transport, schools, and labourers), heavy vehicles such as trucks, trailers and private and public cars, in addition to age of motor vehicles and fuel fleet usage.
"Two factors point to a worsening air pollution situation in Dubai - the rapid pace of urbanization and motorization. Dubai's statistical data showed that motor vehicles increased by an annual average of about 12%. Dubai has about 541 vehicles per thousand population, which is higher than New York (444), London (345) and Singapore (111)," he explained.
He said there has been an increase of 30% in the number of vehicles in Dubai from that of the 2005 figures (465,000 vehicles including 5,000 taxis). "Vehicles in Dubai take 3.1 million trips a day, which is expected to increase to 13.1 million trips a day by the year 2020. This is precisely the reason behind embarking on such a project to know the percentage of vehicles exceeding the emission limit compared to other countries of the world," he added.
He said Environmental Protection and Safety Section had a vital role in reducing the vehicular pollution in the city. "We conducted a seminar in 1999 and started reporting smoky vehicles to the traffic police. We were the major force behind the UAE strategy for reduction of sulfur content in diesel," he added.
A detailed technical presentation on the On-road Vehicle Emission Measurement Using Remote Sensing Device project was delivered by Niranjan Vescio, General Manager, Remote Sensing Division in the Environmental System Products, Tuscon, Arizona, US, which was the company that supplied the equipment for the project.
Among the surveyed vehicles 87% (96,361) were Dubai registered and the rest of the 13% (13,808) were registered in the other emirates. The survey covered 1,085 heavy buses and 8,895 light vehicles. It found that 83% of the vehicles using petrol plying on Dubai roads were newer than 2001 whereas the vehicles using diesel were 76%.
When compared to Los Angeles the study said that both Dubai and Los Angeles are 'car cultures' with tremendous mobile source emission projected. Regarding mobile source air pollution reduction strategy, Vescio said that better fuel, technology, inspection/maintenance and enhanced RSD screening to compliment Dubai's intelligent transport system were the suggested options. He also suggested 10-year retirement for vehicles on Dubai roads as a feasible step to reduce pollution. (WAM)
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