Snow pollution over three decades in Luleå, Sweden

• Main Authors: Vijayan, Arya, Österlund, Heléne, Marsalek, Jiri
• Other Authors: Luleå University of Technology, Luleå University of Technology (LUT), Graie
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: urban snow; TSS; metals; pollution; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Luleå
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04187469; https://hal.science/hal-04187469/document; https://hal.science/hal-04187469/file/P03-09_poster.pdf

International audience Rapid development of new materials and technologies in the automotive sector and urban growth cause changes in emissions of certain pollutants to the environment and introduction of new ones. This can cause changes in the pollutants signature and content in urban snow. Thus, it is important to revisit the reported data on urban snow quality periodically to ensure that snow management planning is based on up-to-date information. In this paper, the concentrations of TSS and ubiquitous urban metals (Zn, Cu, Cr and Pb) in urban snow, sampled at six sites in the City of Luleå during the winter 2020-21, were compared with previous data (from 1995 and 2002) to examine historical changes in snow quality in Luleå during the period 1995-2021. The results show that the pollutant concentrations in snow are influenced by measured air temperatures and precipitation, and such influences bring uncertainties into data comparisons.