Analysis of the Tendency and Comparison of the AtmosphericPollution for Ozone for Mexico City and Los Angeles

摘要

The urban areas of Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) and Los Angeles South Coast Air Basin-(SoCAB) are two of the most polluted areas in the world, with air quality problems for ozone. Thiswork was developed in order to evaluate the trend and compare the atmospheric pollution for ozone, aswell as the control strategies, during 1986 to 2000. Identifying the problem of each city, with their owndifferences and similarities.Various indicators were used to compare air quality in relation to ozone in order to evaluate the trend inboth cities. The efficiencies of the control strategies implemented were evaluated using the methoddeveloped by Lefhon called 'Piston Effect'.One of the differences between the two cities is the behavior of the ozone trends. In Mexico ozonelevels dramatically increased since the mid 80s reaching hourly peaks above 0.350 ppm in 1991. Dueto this fact, and responding to increased public pressure, the government authorities began to applymeasures to control this pollutant. Since 1991, the ozone levels have decreased gradually, until 2000after the applied control strategies.In Los Angeles, ozone control efforts have reduced 19% the number of days with ozone excedances,with a decrement of 45.5% of the average ozone. In Mexico City, ozone control efforts have reduced5% the number of days with ozone excedances, with a decrement of 28% of the average concentrationsin period of study.