A Multidisciplinary Investigation into Urban Air Pollution in a Port City

Southampton has been named recently by the World Health Organisation as breaching limits for airborne particulate matter which, worldwide, is responsible for over 3 million deaths per year. Like many large cities, Southampton is surrounded by a motorway network and has numerous heavily-trafficked roads running through the city. There is also a large port located immediately south of its residential areas, which is the busiest cruise ship port in Europe and the fourth busiest cargo port in the UK, handling up to 1.5 million tourists and almost 40 million tonnes of goods per annum. The port is potentially a major contributor to air pollution within Southampton but, to date, this has not been adequately quantified. Studies of other European ports suggest that ports may contribute up to 20% of the airborne PM in their cities, while ship-emitted PM causes 60,000-70,000 deaths per year worldwide. There is little understanding of the relative contributions from other activities related to the port, such as freight movement, metal scrappage, oil refining and motor vehicle movements. Therefore, ports represent a potentially major source of pollution about which relatively little is understood. The aim of this project is to use cutting edge analytical chemistry, environmental monitoring and data mining techniques to (1) apportion particulate matter pollution at a dock-side location to source; (2) understand how air quality at the dockside is contributed to by shipping movements within the Port of Southampton and also other local sources of pollution, in particular road traffic, (3) how this varies with time of year and climate.

Methodology:
Samples of airborne particulate matter will be collected from the quayside at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, with approximately 200 sampling days being covered, spread across the calendar year to fully capture seasonal variation. Particulate matter concentration will be monitored continuously and daily particulate matter mass concentration will be measured, with trace element composition of each daily sample analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, with isotopic analysis used to add further detail to the data. Mean wind speed and direction, air pressure, temperature, sunlight, and precipitation will be recorded for each daily sample using high time-resolution data from multiple port-based monitoring stations and Met office base stations. Simultaneously, shipping movements within the port will be collated using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and analysed to calculate total shipping emissions on the basis of ship type, load, and speed. Road traffic data will be obtained from council sources made available to us through developing collaborations (e.g. Southampton City Council). In order to analyse these data of fundamentally different temporal scales and type, data will be arranged in databases constructed in Python/SQL, visualised and analysed to quantify the variation in local air quality according to shipping movements and road traffic, and the extent to which this is modulated by climate effects.

Training:
The student will be registered with the Graduate School of NOCS (GSNOCS) and based in Ocean and Earth science at the National Oceanography Centre. A comprehensive generic training programme is available through GSNOCS and the student will receive specific training in:

- Particulate matter (PM) collection and environmental monitoring
- Geochemical analysis of particulate matter using the state-of-the-art facilities housed within the Geochemistry Group in OES.
- Building multidimensional databases to combine, visualise and analyse disparate datasets.

All doctoral candidates will enroll in the Graduate School of NOCS (GSNOCS), where they will receive specialist training in oral and written presentation skills, have the opportunity to participate in teaching activities, and have access to a full range of research and generic training opportunities. GSNOCS attracts students from all over the world and from all science and engineering backgrounds. There are currently around 200 full-and part-time PhD students enrolled (~60% UK and 40% EU & overseas).

To Apply
Please visit http://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/how-to-apply/postgraduate-applications.page and select ""Research", "Full Time" "2017-2018 Academic Session" and "Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences". On the following page, select "PhD Ocean & Earth Sciences ( Full Time)".
Please email Prof Gavin Foster ([Email Address Removed]) or Dr Matt Loxham ([Email Address Removed]) for informal enquiries and further information, and to inform when an application has been made.