Correlational analysis between particulate matter characteristics and land use patterns in different river basins of Taiwan

A correlational analysis of particulate matter (PM) characteristics and land use patterns at different river basins of Taiwan was carried out in this study. 10 river basins with more complete data were selected, including Zhoushui River, Beigang River, Jishui River, Zengwen River, Yanshui River, Agongdian River, Dajia River, Daan River, Sizhong River, and Heping River. The land use patterns were classified as: industry use, hydraulic use, forest use, traffic use, building use, public utility use, military use, agriculture use, earth and stone use, recreation use, and others. To best present the correlation between PM and land use patterns at river basins, the years of PM data coincided with the year for investigation of land use patterns at individual river basin. For PM₁₀, the results revealed the moderately positive correlation between the PM10 and the industry land use percentage (R = 0.44), hydraulic land use percentage (R = 0.38), traffic land use percentage (R = 0.43), military land use percentage (R = 0.32), agriculture land use percentage (R = 0.62), and recreation land use percentage (R = 0.44). The results also revealed the moderately negative correlation between the PM10 and the forest land use percentage (R = -0.65). The results also revealed the highly negative correlation between the PM10 and the earth and stone land use percentage (R = -0.73). For PM_2.5, the results revealed the moderately positive correlation between the PM2.5 and the hydraulic land use percentage (R = 0.38), military land use percentage (R = 0.43), and agriculture land use percentage (R = 0.34). The results also revealed the moderately negative correlation between the PM2.5 and the forest land use percentage (R = -0.37). The results also revealed the highly negative correlation between the PM2.5 and the earth and stone land use percentage (R = - 0.76). atmospheric chemistry models EMEP and WRF/Chem as well as trajectory model Hysplit. Finally, the systematic review of some recent scientific papers focused on PM simulation and intercomparison of different models enabled the identification of unresolved scientific issues in regional PM simulations with atmospheric chemistry models.