Investigation of the efficiency of existing air pollution monitoring sites in the state of Kuwait

The use of mathematical modelling for investigation of the efficiency of existing monitoring sites for the impact of SO2 emissions from power stations in the state of Kuwait is described. The Industrial Source Complex Short Term (ISCST3) model is utilised to obtain the spatial and temporal variations of SO2 over residential areas. Statistical comparison between the 50 highest daily measured and predicted SO2 concentrations at six monitoring sites shows that the model is capable of generating results with accuracy of 60–94%. An important conclusion of this work is that the existing locations of the Kuwait-EPA monitoring stations are not suitable for measuring the actual impact of SO2. Therefore, there is a need for relocation of these sites to register the highest levels of SO2 emitted from the current power stations in the state of Kuwait. The Kuwait-EPA monitoring stations are not appropriately distributed and there is a need to relocate them within the residential areas to measure the actual impact of SO2 emitted from the power stations.