Variability of Air Quality and Bioclimatic Conditions in an Urban Area: A Case Study of Lublin, Poland

Scale of assessment of thermal stress of the organism according to UTCI, and ways of counteracting unfavourable biothermal conditions from a given class (Błażejczyk et al. 2013).

UTCI [°C]	Stress category	Physiological responses
>46	extreme heat stress (EHS)	– Increase in rectal temperature (Tre) time gradient – Steep decrease in total net heat loss – Averaged sweat rate >650 g · h⁻¹, steep increase
38.1–46.0	very strong heat stress (VSHS)	– Core to skin temperature gradient <1 K (at 30 min) – Increase in Tre at 30 min
32.1–38.0	strong heat stress (SHS)	– Dynamic thermal sensation (DTS) at 120 min >+2 – Averaged sweat rate >200 g · h⁻¹ – Increase in Tre at 120 min – Latent heat loss >40 W at 30 min – Instantaneous change in skin temperature >0 K · min⁻¹
26.1–32.0	moderate heat stress (MHS)	– Change of slopes in sweat rate, Tre and skin temperature: mean (Tskm), face (Tskfc) and hand (Tskhn) – Occurrence of sweating at 30 min – Steep increase in skin wettedness
9.1–26.0	no thermal stress (NTS)	– Averaged sweat rate >100 g · h⁻¹ – DTS at 120 min <1 – DTS between -0.5 and +0.5 (averaged value) – Latent heat loss >40 W, averaged over time – Plateau in Tre time gradient
0.1–9.0	slight cold stress (SlCS)	– DTS at 120 min <–1 – Local minimum of Tskhn (use gloves)
-12.9 to 0.0	moderate cold stress (MCS)	– DTS at 120 min <–2 – Skin blood flow at 120 min lower than at 30 min (vasoconstriction) – Averaged Tskfc – Decrease in Tskhn – Tre time gradient <0 K · h⁻¹ – 30 min face skin temperature <15°C (pain) – Tmsk time gradient <–1 K · h⁻¹ (for reference)
-26.9 to -13.0	strong cold stress (SCS)	– Averaged Tskfc <7°C (numbness) – Tre time gradient <-0.1 K · h⁻¹ – Tre decreases from 30 min to 120 min – Increase in core to skin temperature gradient
-39.9 to -27.0	very strong cold stress (VSCS)	– 120 min Tskfc <0°C (frostbite) – Steeper decrease in Tre – 30 min Tskfc <7°C (numbness) – Occurrence of shivering – Tre time gradient <-0.2 K · h⁻¹ – Averaged Tskfc <0°C (frostbite). – – 120 min Tskfc <-5°C (high risk of frostbite)
<-40.0	extreme cold stress (ECS)	– Tre time gradient <–0.3 K · h⁻¹ – 30 min Tskfc <0°C (frostbite)

Table 2.

Scale of the estimation of air quality according to the CAQI calculation grid (van den Elshout et al. 2014).

Index	Grid	City background
		Core pollutants			Pollutants
		NO₂	PM10	O₃	PM2.5	CO	SO₂
		[μg · rn 1
very low class (VLC)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
very low class (VLC)	25	50	25	60	15	5000	50
low class (LC)	25	50	25	60	15	5000	50
low class (LC)	50	100	50	120	30	7500	100
medium class (MC)	50	100	50	120	30	7500	100
medium class (MC)	75	200	90	180	55	10,000	350
high class (HC)	75	200	90	180	55	10,000	350
high class (HC)	100	400	180	240	110	20,000	500
very high class (VHC)	>100	>400	>180	>240	>110	>20,000	>500

Frequency of occurrence of thermal stress classes (UTCI) at 12 UTC.
EHS – extreme heat stress; ESC – extreme cold stress; MHS – moderate heat stress; MSC – moderate cold stress; NTS – no thermal stress; SCS – strong cold stress; SHS – strong heat stress; SlCS – slight cold stress; VSCS – very strong cold stress; VSHS – very strong heat stress.

Table 3.

Acceptable levels of selected substances in the air (Journal of Laws 2021.845, WHO 2006, 2021).

Pollutant	Unit	Averaging time	AQG level (WMO 2005 recommendation)	AQG level (WMO 2021 recommendation)	Dz.U.2021.845
PM2.5	μg · m⁻³	Annual	10	5	20^c
PM2.5		24-h	25	15^a	–
PM10		Annual	20	15	40^c
PM10		24-h	50	45^a	50^c
O₃		Peak season		60^b
O₃		8-h	100	100^a	120^d
No₂		Annual	40	10	40^c
No₂		24-h	–	25^a	–
SO₂		Annual		–	20
SO₂		24-h	20	40^a	125
CO	mg · m^–3	24-h	–	4^a	–

1a 99th percentile (i.e. 3–4 days of exceedance in a year)

1b mean daily value of maximum 8-h O₃ concentration in 6 subsequent months with a higher level of O₃ concentration

1c level acceptable in terms of health protection

1d maximum 8-h mean value among rolling averages calculated from 1-h means in a day; each resulting 8-h mean is ascribed to the day in which it ends; the first calculation period for each day is the period from 17:00 of the previous day to 10:00 of the following day; the last calculation period for each day is the period from 16:00 to 24:00 of that day, all time yardsticks being based on Central European Time (CET).

Monthly values of the 5th, 25th, 75th and 95th percentiles of selected air pollutants in Lublin (2015–2021).

Table 4.

Mean annual concentration values (μg o m⁻³) of selected air pollutants in Lublin (2015–2021).

Pollutants	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2015–2021
SO₂	3.6	3.8	5.2	4.8	4.8	4.3	5.0	4.5
NO₂	23.3	21.7	21.7	21.5	19.5	17.2	17.0	20.3
CO	300	400	400	400	300	300	300	400
O₃	45.1	37.4	48.0	48.8	50.6	43.1	37.6	44.4
PM2.5	28.1	26.6	22.0	24.5	20.3	18.7	23.9	23.4
PM10	36.4	30.8	32.5	33.6	26.5	22.3	28.9	30.1

Frequency of occurrence of air quality classes according to CAQI during the day.

Frequency of occurrence of air quality classes (CAQI) during the day, determined by NO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.5.

Frequency of occurrence of classes of medium (MC), high (HC) and very high (VHC) CAQI air quality during particular types of UTCI thermal stress.
EHS – extreme heat stress; ESC – extreme cold stress; MHS – moderate heat stress; MSC – moderate cold stress; NTS – no thermal stress; SCS – strong cold stress; SHS – strong heat stress; SlCS – slight cold stress; VSCS –very strong cold stress; VSHS – very strong heat stress.

Course of the CAQI and UTCI indices during the cold wave in Lublin during 6–11 January 2017.

Course of the CAQI and UTCI indices during the heat wave in Lublin during 4–15 August 2015.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/quageo-2023-0030 | Journal eISSN: 2081-6383 | Journal ISSN: 2082-2103 (formerly 0137-477X)

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Language: English

Page range: 175 - 193

Submitted on: Apr 18, 2023

Published on: Sep 7, 2023

Published by: Adam Mickiewicz University

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

air pollution,

Common Air Quality Index,

Universal Thermal Climate Index,

urban bioclimate

Related subjects:

Geosciences,

Geography

© 2023 Mateusz Dobek, Sylwester Wereski, Agnieszka Krzyżewska, published by Adam Mickiewicz University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 42 (2023): Issue 3 (September 2023)

Variability of Air Quality and Bioclimatic Conditions in an Urban Area: A Case Study of Lublin, Poland

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1.

Table 1.

Table 2.

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Table 3.

Fig. 3.

Table 4.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.

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