3.2 Project design for organics measurements
The following 10 sites in the Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong area were surveyed:
- Sydney CBD
- Rozelle, Sydney (inner urban)
- St Marys, Sydney (outer urban)
- Newcastle CBD (regional urban centre)
- Wallsend (lower Hunter)
- Beresfield (lower Hunter)
- Wollongong CBD (regional urban centre)
- Warrawong (Illawarra)
- Kembla Grange (Illawarra)
- Albion Park (Illawarra).
A 24-hour sample was taken every six days at five primary sites: for five years in the Sydney CBD, and at Rozelle and St Marys, and four years in the Newcastle and Wollongong CBDs. The six-day cycle is used so that samples are collected across every day of the week. This data set built on data for the Sydney sites gathered previously, enabling establishment of a baseline which takes inter-annual variability into account.
A supplementary (although less intensive) sampling program was also undertaken in the lower Hunter (Beresfield and Wallsend) and Illawarra (Albion Park, Kembla Grange and Warrawong) regions which confirmed that the Newcastle and Wollongong sites were representative of each region. The data from these five sub-regional sites showed a range of values comparable with those at the primary sites. It should be noted that the sub-regional data is not able to be directly compared with the annual averages used as international benchmarks, because of the shorter sampling period of 3-4 months at a time rather than continuously throughout the year.
Because of the strong association between motor vehicle emissions (including organic air toxics) and the concentration of vehicle numbers, the Sydney CBD site is likely to represent the maximum ambient levels in the Sydney region. The other Sydney sites are generally representative of typical urban ambient concentrations.
Page last updated: 26 February 2011
