IMPACT OF SHIP TRAFFIC TO SOME ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTANTS CONCENTRATION IN THE CITY OF VENICE

Ports have always had a dual nature: on the one hand they are hubs for tourism and commercial activities, providing wealth and prosperity of the neighbouring towns; on the other hand they are source of atmospheric pollution, creating great concern, since they are often located near city centres. Great attention has been paid to minimize pollution from road traffic, while that produced by ship traffic was considered only in recent years, despite contributing nearly 50% of total atmospheric particulate in several medium-size port-cities. This work was conducted in the framework of the POSEIDON (POllution monitoring of Ship Emission: an IntegrateD approach fOr harbor of the Adriatic basiN) project (MED programme 2007-2013). The objective of POSEIDON activities is to quantify the relative contribution of maritime traffic to atmospheric pollutants concentration in four port-cities of the Adriatic Sea (Brindisi, Venice, Patras and Rijeka). At the same time POSEIDON proposes to identify policy gaps and to support the proposal of integrated common strategies and future actions for sustainable development of coastal area in the Adriatic Sea. This study focuses on the port-city of Venice. The ship traffic impact was quantified using different methodologies and referring to various pollutants that are not yet included in the current legislation on ship emissions: 1. PM2.5 and particle number concentration (PNC), using data at high temporal resolution [1]; 2. PM10 and PM2.5 at low resolution, using atmospheric vanadium data [2]; 3. Metals in PM10, conducting a source apportionment (Positive Matrix Factorization technique) [2]; 4. Gaseous and particulate PAHs, adopting a double sampling method [2, 3]. With the exception of PNC, data were collected from 2007 (or 2009) to 2013, permitting the evaluation of the effect of the European Directive 2005/33/EC (which was enforced on 1st January 2010) on the air quality of Venice. The outcomes showed a decrease in the contribution of ship traffic to particulate matter, both from measurements at high and low resolution. On the contrary, the contribution to metals and PAHs seems to be stable or even increased, over the years. From this work it is clear the need to add other pollutants in the legislation which regulates shipping emissions: i) ultrafine particles, since a stronger shipping contribution was observed to PNC respect to PM2.5; ii) metals and particulate-PAHs, since no decrement was observed after the introduction of the 2005/33/EC Directive. [1] Contini D., Gambaro A., Donateo A., Cescon P., Cesari D., Merico E., Belosi F., Citron M. (2015). Inter-annual trend of the primary contribution of ship emissions to PM2.5 concentrations in Venice (Italy): Efficiency of emissions mitigation strategies. Atmospheric Environment 102, 183-190. [2] Gregoris E., Barbaro E., Morabito E., Toscano G., Donateo A., Cesari D., Contini D., Gambaro A. (2015). Impact of maritime traffic on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals and particulate matter in Venice air. Environmental Science and Pollution Research XX, xxx. [3] Donateo A, Gregoris E, Gambaro A, Merico E, Giuia R, Nocioni A, Contini D (2014). Contribution of harbour activities and ships traffic to PM2.5, particle number concentrations and PAHs in a port-city of the Mediterranean Sea (Italy). Environmental Science and Pollution Research 21, 9415-9429.