Dynamics of particulate matter concentration in urban forest in Korea

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Hong-Duck Sou, Pyung-Rae Kim, Byung Mook Hwang and Jeong-Hak Oh, Urban Forests Research Center, National Institute of Forest Science, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South)

Background/Question/Methods
Urban forest(UF) is a natural and semi-natural infrastructure within a city that conserve the severe urban climate by providing ecosystem services such as heavy rain, heat island mitigation, and air pollution prevention. Recently, the damage caused by particulate matter(PM) has spread in urban centers, and thus the potential for the function of reducing PM in UF is drawing attention. It is thought that the characteristics of dynamics of PM in forests will appear differently depending on the species and the structure of the forest. This study attempted to understand the effect of reducing PM in UF through the dynamics of the PM concentration in the UF located in urban centers of Seoul, where the problem of PM is serious. PM concentration(PM10, PM2.5) and meteorological data(air temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind speed) before and after leaf development were measured and analyzed for 24 hours in a row in the broad-leaved(BF) and coniferous forests(CF) located in Seoul. Through the analysis of wind roses around the measurement point, the characteristics of the pollutant sources around the UF were analyzed.
Results/Conclusions
No difference in the PM concentration in CF(PM10: 40.5㎍/㎥, PM2.5: 18.6㎍/㎥) and BF(PM10: 40.5㎍/㎥, PM2.5: 19.3㎍/㎥) before the leaf development, but lower PM concentrations were observed in BF after the leaf development. In CF, the PM concentration was measured for vertical location to analyze the characteristics of PM dynamics according to the height. The measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 were measured at four different vertical position(0.5m from the forest floor: floor, 1.5m: lower, 4m: middle, 6m: top). During the measurement, the concentration of PM10 was 39.4㎍/㎥ in the top layer, 48.3㎍/㎥ in the middle layer, 45.1㎍/㎥ in the lower layer, and 34.9㎍/㎥ in the floor layer, and the concentration of PM2.5 was 29.9㎍/㎥, 32.2㎍/㎥, 32.5㎍/㎥, and 28.7㎍/㎥. Seasonal changes in the PM concentration of UF indicated that the development of leaves played an important role in the reduction of PM. PM from outside the forest moves to the inside of the forest, is absorbed and adsorbed on the canopy, collected in the middle layer and the lower layer, and showed the PM reduction dynamics in the floor layer. It is believed that the canopy layer functions as a filter of forest. The dynamics of PM concentration changed by the ecological characteristics of UF. Therefore, it is believed that this study can be applied to the development of eco-friendly UF and ecological management of UF.