EG08 P: Assessment of Air Quality in Abu Dhabi Emirate, UAE using Geoinformatics

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are often employed to examine and analyze air quality in different locations and time periods. These systems are also useful for generating maps that indicate the distribution of air pollutants and setting standards for them. In this study, the spatial and temporal characteristics of five air pollutants in Abu Dhabi Emirate, UAE for the years 2016 and 2017 were analyzed and visualized including PM10, SO₂, CO, NO₂, and O₃. Using data collected from the National Center of Meteorology (NCM), Air Quality Index (AQI) was calculated, and air pollution maps were created using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation method. These maps were analyzed to identify major hotspots of air pollution within the Emirate and to investigate the temporal variability per pollutant. The data showed that PM10 and O₃ are the most dominated pollutant in the country. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal variability of PM10 was noticeable compared to other pollutants especially CO which did not show any.