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Climate Detectives Projects 2023-2024

Project title: Air quality in cities compared to the countryside

  National selected winner

Gymnázium, Poštová 9, Košice   Košice – Sever   Slovakia

Research question

Is the air quality in the countryside worse than in larger cities during the winter?
Is the air quality in the countryside better than in larger cities during the spring?

Summary of the project

The goal of this project was to research the air pollution in our nearby surroundings. We wanted to examine if the air we breathe could possibly cause some health hazards or just overall uncomfortable conditions. We specifically picked the comparison between country/village and the city because the different stuff going on in those two places. We mainly wanted to monitor the winter/spring months because in the winter season almost every household must heat up in some way. In this day and age people in the city are mostly using gas for heating or electricity for heating whilst people in the country are using among the gas and/or electricity also solid fuels for heating, such as wood, briquettes or even coal. The heating with solid fuels, especially when done incorrectly, can be a major factor for the air pollution as PM10 and PM2,5 particles are making their way into the air, this can cause a pretty notable air pollution. Obviously, there are more minor factors that influence the air pollution like population density or amount of factories in the surroundings or traffic pollution (car fumes or road salting) and many more.

Main results and Conclusions

Is the air quality in the countryside worse than in larger cities during the winter?
Is the air quality in the countryside better than in larger cities during the spring?

Our hypothesis in this research was that the air in the winter season in the village is relatively more polluted than the air in the city. The main factor in this result was the heating of households with wood, which made the air more polluted than in the city. We collected data in several places in order to compare our results. We measured in these places: City of Košice, Prešov, Bardejov, then the surroundings of the city of Košice, the surroundings of our High Tatras mountain range and the surrounding villages near our city.
O3 has worse pollution in March than in January. In the higher altitude areas, Stará Lesná and Kojšovská Hoľa, the O3 pollution was the worst.
PM2,5 has worse pollution in January than in March. Veľká Ida which is close to a steel producing factory has the highest pollution while Stará Lesná has the lowest.
NO2 pollution was measured in Prešov, Stará Lesná and Bardejov. NO2 pollution was highest in Prešov and extemely low in Bardejov and Stará Lesná. This might be the case because Prešov is a city with a relatively high population compared to the other 2 cities.
PM10 pollution was highest in Veľká Ida and Košice, both of which are in close proximity to a steel producing factory.

What’s Next? Actions to make a difference and help lessen the problem

The results of the measurements show the need for the use of renewable sources for the purpose of heating and preparing hot water for households. In rural areas, this will significantly improve air quality in the winter. Continued research would be directed towards measuring air quality in areas with the highest incidence of household photovoltaic pannels. Increasing people’s awareness and financial support from the government for the purchase of PV cells would, in our opinion, contribute to a better quality of life.

Projects are created by the teams and they take the full responsibility of the shared data.
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