A Two City study of Air Quality in Vietnam

世界卫生组织（WHO）将恶劣的空气质量描述为最大的单一环境健康风险，并将每年800万人的死亡归因于暴露于空气污染的后果。越南是东南亚增长最快的经济体之一，因此经历了快速的城市化，工业化和人口增长。除其他因素外，这导致了空气质量的恶化，越南是世界上污染最严重的国家之一，在最近的一项调查中，越南的空气质量在180个国家中排名第170位（环境绩效指数，耶鲁大学，2016）。越南的空气质量监测是不完整的，许多以前报道的研究现在已经过时。鉴于经济的快速发展和城市如胡志明市和河内的发展，迫切需要新的、最新的空气质量测量和对所观察到的污染的主要来源的重新评估。南部的胡志明市和北部的河内，以提高我们对这些对比鲜明的环境中空气污染的浓度和来源的理解。测量将在旱季和雨季进行，当时的盛行风和可能的污染源可能大不相同。英国研究小组将向越南提供一系列分析设备，以补充越南合作伙伴的现有测量。这些仪器将极大地改善目前可用的物种形成测量，包括在气相和颗粒相中发现的有机化合物的详细信息，后者使用新的质谱检测技术。这将为我们提供显著增强的气相和颗粒物的数据集，使我们能够使用各种数据分析工具，包括正矩阵因子（PMF），更好地识别两个城市对人类健康的主要污染物以及不同排放源的相对重要性。该项目的一个重要组成部分将是与越南合作伙伴的知识交流和能力建设。其中包括在英国接待越南工作人员几个月，学习颗粒过滤器分析、空气传感器技术和PMF等源解析软件的使用等技术。由此产生的空气污染数据库将是越南迄今为止最大和最全面的数据库，并将成为未来空气质量模型研究的宝贵资源。核查排放清单和设计有效的减排战略。为了传播我们的研究结果，我们将在项目结束时在越南组织一个研讨会，我们将邀请来自各种学术，政府和非政府组织的代表参加。

The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes poor air quality as the largest single environmental health risk and attributes 8 million deaths annually to the consequences of exposure to air pollution. Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in SE Asia and, as a result, has undergone rapid urbanisation, industrialisation and population growth. This has led to the deterioration of, amongst other factors, air quality, with Vietnam being one of the most polluted countries in the world, ranked 170th out of 180 countries for air quality in a recent survey (Environmental Performance Index, Yale University, 2016). Air quality monitoring in Vietnam is patchy and many of the previously-reported studies are now quite dated. Given the rapid economic development and the growth of cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, there is a pressing need for new, up-to-date air quality measurements and a reassessment of the major sources of the observed pollution.For this study we propose to make measurements of a range of air quality indicators in the 2 largest cities in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City in the south and Hanoi in the north in order to improve our understanding of the concentrations and sources of air pollution in these contrasting environments. Measurements will be made during both the dry and wet seasons when the prevailing winds and likely sources of pollution could be quite different. The UK groups will take a range of analytical equipment to Vietnam which will complement the existing measurements made by the Vietnam partners. These instruments will vastly improve the speciation of measurements currently available, including detailed information on the organic compounds found in both the gas and particulate phase, the latter using novel mass spectrometric detection techniques. This will provide us with significantly enhanced datasets of both gas phase and particulate species which will allow us to better identify the key pollutants for human health and the relative importance of different emissions sources in the 2 cities using various data analysis tools including positive matrix factorisation (PMF).An important component of the project will be knowledge exchange and capacity building with the Vietnamese partners. This will include the hosting of Vietnamese staff in the UK for several months to learn techniques including particle filter analysis, air sensor technology and the use of source apportionment software such as PMF.The resultant air pollution database will be the largest and most comprehensive in Vietnam to date and will serve as a valuable resource for future air quality modelling studies, the verification of emission inventories and for the design of effective abatement strategies. To disseminate our findings we will organise a workshop in Vietnam towards the end of the project to which we will invite representatives from various academic, governmental and non-governmental organisations.