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Abstract
Construction-related soil disturbance (e.g., road construction, trenching, land stripping, earthmoving, and blasting) is a significant source of fugitive (airborne) dust in the atmosphere. Fugitive dust is a primary cause of decreased air quality and may carry airborne pathogens. We use Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) remote-sensing data spanning 1994 through 2009 over southern Arizona to identify source areas of construction-related activity likely to produce fugitive dust. We correlate temporal changes in the mid-infrared spectral response to dust sources from local construction. Image differencing of the TM band 5 (mid-infrared), with a change threshold of ±5 SD of the mean, suitably estimates the location and area affected by construction-related soil disturbance. Estimated dust-producing surface area ranges from 10.0 (1996–1997) to 28.3 km2 (2004–2005), or 0.16–0.44% of the Pima County study area. Our methods aim to automate monitoring of fugitive dust sources by environmental and health agencies and to provide inputs to dust transport, air quality, and climate models.
Acknowledgments
Components of this research were funded with a grant from the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (#R8327540). Special thanks are extended to the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality for assistance with their dust inspection database and data collection methodology, and to the Arizona Regional Image Archive (ARIA) for assistance with COST image preprocessing protocol. Additional appreciation is extended to Dr. Daoqin Tong of the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona for assistance with statistical methods.