Urban Road Vertices And Vehicular Pollution In Owerri: A Fast Growing Nigerian City

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the effect of road roundabouts and road junctions on vehicular pollution in Owerri, Nigeria. A total of ten roundabouts and road junctions were purposively selected and studied. Traffic intensity data were collected twice daily for five days by the investigators at ten minutes interval. Data for the air pollutants were obtained from the Imo State Environmental Protection Agency. The Spearman's ranked order correlation technique was used to investigate the relationship between traffic intensity and some air pollutants. The result obtained indicated the absence of any significant relationship between traffic intensity on the one hand and the Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and hydrocarbon (HC) contents of the air respectively on the other hand. This insignificant relationship not withstanding, it was foun d out that the values of the four contaminants at these locations exceeded the WHO stipulated limits. The implications of the observed trend for human health were considered.

Keywords: Road Vertices, Traffic Intensity, Air Pollution, Human Health

Global Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 7 (1) 2008: pp. 1-4