Assessment of urban air quality in Istanbul using fuzzy synthetic evaluation

Little attention was paid to growing air quality concerns until about a decade earlier in Istanbul. With a population of over 12 million people and some occurred episodes imposed threats to the local government, and continuous monitoring of the urban air quality was started about a decade ago. This is part of a national strategy program which includes urban air quality assessment. This paper addresses a methodology for urban air quality using fuzzy synthetic evaluation techniques. The European part of Istanbul was selected for this purpose. Air pollutants data such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) ozone (O-3), and total suspended particulate matter (PM) collected at five different air quality monitoring stations located in western part of Istanbul was used in this evaluation. The results obtained were compared to those applied to EPA air quality index. It was demonstrated that fuzzy synthetic evaluation techniques are quite appropriate techniques for air quality management. A case study was presented for this purpose. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.