Temporal variability of the elemental composition in urban street dust

✍ Scribed by Stephen J. Vermette; Kim N. Irvine; John J. Drake

• Book ID: 104754339
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 446 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6369
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00394478

✦ Synopsis

Urban Street dust is recognized as a source of urban air and runoff degradation. This paper takes a preliminary step toward a better understanding of temporal variability in street dust chemistry and of the controlling mechanisms. Street dust samples, collected over four seasons in the city of Hamilton, Canada, show a variability dependent on element and source -anthropogenic sources exhibiting the greatest temporal variability. In addition, elements attributed to common sources exhibit similar temporal patterns. The use of 'generic' or even one-time samples may seriously misrepresent the elemental make-up of urban street dust. Based on the samples collected in this study, a number of questions/insights are posed to further the study of street dust temporal variability.