Analysis of air pollution trends in Italy (2008 – 2017)
The main objective of this study was to assess the air pollution temporal trend in Italy, over the 2008-2017 period, focusing on airborne mass concentration of selected pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen oxides, ozone. Time series analysis using Seasonal Kendall test has been applied. The study updates the analysis conducted five years ago (referring to the period 2003 - 2012), extending it to a greater number of sampling points, thus allowing a better spatial representation of trends throughout the country.
A statistically significant moderate decreasing trend was found in the majority of the PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 time series, though some exceptions should be investigated locally. Any downward trend was found in the large majority of ozone time series. This could be explained by the complexity of ground level atmospheric formation/depletion mechanism that seems to be not linearly dependent on precursor emission reduction. Our findings are in good agreement with those from studies carried out in Europe recently.
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