Source Apportionment of PM and PM Air Pollution, and Possible Impacts of Study Characteristics in South Korea

Introduction: Studies of source apportionment (SA) for particulate matter (PM) air pollution have enhanced understanding of dominant pollution sources and quantification of their contribution. Although there have been many SA studies in South Korea over the last two decades, few studies provided an integrated understanding of PM sources nationwide. The aim of this study was to summarize findings of PM SA studies of South Korea and to explore study characteristics.

Methods: We selected studies that estimated sources of PM and PM performed for 2000-2017 in South Korea using Positive Matrix Factorization and Chemical Mass Balance. We reclassified the original PM sources identified in each study into seven categories: motor vehicle, secondary aerosol, soil dust, biomass/field burning, combustion/industry, natural source, and others. These seven source categories were summarized by using frequency and contribution across four regions, defined by northwest, west, southeast, and southwest regions, by PM and PM. We also computed the population-weighted mean contribution of each source category. In addition, we compared study features including sampling design, sampling and lab analysis methods, chemical components, and the inclusion of Asian dust days.

Results: In the 21 selected studies, all six PM studies identified motor vehicle, soil dust, and combustion/industry, while all 15 PM studies identified motor vehicle and soil dust. Different from the frequency, secondary aerosol produced a large contribution to both PM and PM. Motor vehicle contributed highly to both, whereas the contribution of combustion/industry was high for PM. The population-weighted mean contribution was the highest for the motor vehicle and secondary aerosol sources for both PM10 and PM2.5. However, these results were based on different subsets of chemical speciation data collected at a single sampling site, commonly in metropolitan areas, with short overlap and measured by different lab analysis methods.

Conclusion: We found that motor vehicle and secondary aerosol were the most common and influential sources for PM in South Korea. Our study, however, suggested a caution to understand SA findings from heterogeneous study features for study designs and input data.