James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses The Graduate School Fall 2013 Public perception on the state of air quality in Malta Nikolas Cassar James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019 Part of the Environmental Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Cassar, Nikolas, "Public perception on the state of air quality in Malta" (2013). Masters Theses. 170. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/170 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PUBLIC PERCEPTION ON THE STATE OF AIR QUALITY IN MALTA NIKOLAS CASSAR MSc. in Sustainable Environment Resources Management & Integrated Science and Technology December 2013 Approved and recommended for acceptance as a thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Sustainable Environment Resources Management & Integrated Science and Technology. Special committee directing the thesis work of Nikolas Cassar ___________________________________________ Mr. Mark Scerri Date ___________________________________________ Dr. Charles Galdies Date ___________________________________________ Dr. Jonathan J. Miles Date ___________________________________________ Dr. Joel Azzopardi Date ___________________________________________ Dr. Eric Maslen Date Received by The Graduate School ________________ Date PUBLIC PERCEPTION ON THE STATE OF AIR QUALITY IN MALTA NIKOLAS CASSAR A dissertation submitted to the Graduate faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF MALTA In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Sustainable Environment Resources Management & Integrated Science and Technology December 2013 Dedication To my family, for their everlasting support, patience and love ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank to my thesis committee, especially Mr. Mark Scerri and Dr. Charles Galdies for their guidance, support and patience throughout this research study. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my aunt Amanda; for helping me a lot throughout this research study and for being there in my time of need. Special thanks also goes to my mother Annabelle, my father Mario, my grandmother Josette, my brother Jan, Sabrina and my newly born niece, Leah, the rest of my family, my friends and course mates; who always provided me with support and encouragement to help me gain confidence. Furthermore, I would also like to thank: Dr. Albert Bezzina, Dr. Marie Brigulio, Dr. Liberato Camilleri, Dr. Elisabeth Conrad, Mr. Nicholas Desira, Dr. Mohammed Hazzouri, Dr. Nathalie Kenely, Ms. Marilou Micallef, Dr. Jonathan J. Miles and Mr. Andrea Pace for helping me and giving me advice when I encountered problems related to my thesis. Finally, I would like to thank all the respondents who spared the time to answer my questionnaire. iii Declaration This is to declare that this thesis is an original and unpublished study carried out by the undersigned and is presented to the University of Malta and James Madison University for the first time as part of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Sustainable Environment Resources Management and Integrated Science and Technology. ____________ Nikolas Cassar iv Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Declaration ......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... xiv Abstract ............................................................................................................................. xv 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 2 Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 4 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Pollutants under study .......................................................................................... 6 2.2.1 Benzene ......................................................................................................... 6 2.2.2 Sources of Benzene ....................................................................................... 7 2.2.3 Benzene trends in Europe ............................................................................. 8 2.2.4 Nitrogen dioxide ......................................................................................... 10 2.2.5 Sources of nitrogen dioixide ....................................................................... 11 2.2.6 Nitrogen dioxide trends in Europe .............................................................. 12 2.3 Resultant impacts ............................................................................................... 13 2.3.1 Health impacts of benzene .......................................................................... 14 2.3.2 Health impacts of nitrogen dioxide ............................................................ 15 2.3.3 Tropospheric ozone as a result of benzene and nitrogen dioxide ............... 17 2.3.4 Tropospheric ozone trends in Europe ......................................................... 18 2.3.5 Health impacts of tropospheric ozone......................................................... 20 2.3.6 Impacts on vegetation ................................................................................. 22 2.3.7 Other resultant impacts ............................................................................... 23 2.4 Ambient air quality strategies and legislations in Europe .................................. 23 2.5 Public perception on air quality ......................................................................... 27 2.6 An overview of the current position in Malta .................................................... 29 v 2.6.1 Geography of Malta .................................................................................... 29 2.6.2 Contributors of air pollution in Malta ......................................................... 31 2.6.3 Measurment of air pollutant levels in Malta ............................................... 33 2.6.4 Benzene in Malta ........................................................................................ 34 2.6.5 Nitrogen dioxide in Malta ........................................................................... 34 2.6.6 Tropospheric ozone in Malta ...................................................................... 35 2.6.7 Perception on air quality in Malta ............................................................... 36 2.7 Measurement and assessment tools used in the research study ......................... 38 2.7.1 Questionnaires............................................................................................. 38 2.7.2 Geographical Information Systems (GIS) .................................................. 40 2.7.3 Kriging ........................................................................................................ 40 2.7.4 Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) .......................................... 41 2.8 Summary ............................................................................................................ 42 3 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 44 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 44 3.2 Analysis of the diffusion tube data ..................................................................... 44 3.2.1 Selection of air pollutions ........................................................................... 44 3.2.2 Data collection and inputting ...................................................................... 45 3.2.3 Data cleaning .............................................................................................. 45 3.2.4 Importation of data on ArcGIS ................................................................... 46 3.2.5 Application of kriging ................................................................................. 47 3.3 Data analysis of the perceived data .................................................................... 48 3.3.1 Construction of questionnaire ..................................................................... 48 3.3.2 Distribution of the questionnaire ...............................................................