Analysis of Air Pollutants in Istanbul: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

In last ten years, Istanbul faced severe air pollution problems. The occurrences of high concentrations of air pollution in the city have reached to the levels of danger for the habitants (Erturk, 1986). The main cause of Istanbul ’s air pollution comes from the burning of low quality lignite and fossil fuels containing high percent of sulfur used mainly for heating purposes (Erturk, 1986; Erturk et al., 1995). It is the purpose of this article to gain perspective for the assessment of the spatial distribution of one of the air pollutants, SO2, for the Istanbul municipality region by the usage of a spatial prediction scheme, Kriging (Matheron, 1971).The city ’s population increased exponentially at the beginning of 1980 ’s. l/5th of the population and 70% of the country ’s industry is located in Istanbul. The urbanization of the city is badly organized and unplanned.