Air quality in Novi Sad

What is the air quality like in Novi Sad?

Novi Sad is a city located in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, being the capital of said province as well as the second largest city in Serbia. It is located geographically on the banks of the river Danube, as well as facing the mountain range of Fruska Gora. The city is well known as the economic heart of the region, with a large amount of industry revolving around agriculture, due to the provinces fertile soil. In more recent times Novi Sad has tended towards the service industry, with a larger percentage of the population starting work in sectors such as IT or the finance industry.

With a growing economy and subsequent implementation of urban infrastructure, as well as a steadily growing population (last taken at 250 thousand in 2011, a number that will have risen since then), there would also be a related rise in air pollution due to an increase in anthropogenic activity, as well as an increase in the demand for electricity to power various homes and businesses.

In 2019, Novi Sad came in with a PM2.5 average of 26.9 μg/m³ as its yearly average, a reading that placed it into the ‘moderate’ ratings bracket, one that requires a reading of anywhere between 12.1 to 35.4 μg/m³ to be classified as such. This placed the city in 539^th place out of all cities ranked worldwide, a considerably high placing that signifies that Novi Sad is indeed subject to some poor quality of air. It also ranked in 5^th place out of all cities recorded in Serbia.

What are the main causes of pollution in Novi Sad?

Novi Sad sees much of its pollution stemming from sources that often involve combustion of some sort, ranging from cars and other vehicles, to industrial emissions as well as the burning of organic material such as wood or charcoal to provide heating or energy for cooking in certain homes, particularly in lower income districts or areas where people still tend towards more traditional practices.

To observe the problem of vehicular emissions, they present a significant issue for both Novi Sad as well as all cities round the world. Many personal vehicles such as cars and motorbikes would inhabit the road, alongside heavy duty vehicles such as buses, lorries and trucks, many of which are involved in the import and export of both agricultural produce as well as industrial items. These vehicles oftentimes run on diesel fuels, which besides being an unsustainable fuel source, also put out higher amounts of pollution.

Many of these cars would be aged and unsuitable for continued road use, as is common in certain parts of the world. Aged engines usually equate to larger amounts of oil vapors and pollutants being leaked, which can be a compounding factor in elevated levels of pollution. Other sources would be ones such as industrial emissions from factories and power plants, as well as the extensive use of wood burning, as touched upon previously.

When is Novi Sad at its most polluted?

Observing the data taken over the course of 2019, Novi Sad showed some large elevations in PM2.5 correlating with the colder winter months, as is common place in many seasonal countries and cities that see harsher winters. After the month of September, the air quality took a turn for the worst, with September coming in at 17.8 μg/m³, which was then followed by a significant jump up to 42 μg/m³, a reading that placed the month of October into the ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups bracket’, a rating which requires a PM2.5 reading of anywhere between 35.5 to 55.4 μg/m³ for classification. November followed with a lower reading of 18.4 μg/m³, before going back up to 39.3 μg/m³ in December.

These higher pollution levels continued over into the early months of the following year, with January coming in as the most polluted month in 2019 with a reading of 46 μg/m³, putting it into the higher end of its group bracket. Pollution levels remained high, albeit with a gradual decline as the winter months wore off. February came in with a reading of 34.7 μg/m³, followed by 23.1 μg/m³ in March, with the following months being the cleaner period of the year. So, in closing, the time frame that had the worst level of pollution was between October through to March, with January showing the highest reading of PM2.5.

When is the air quality at its cleanest in Novi Sad?

As touched on previously, the higher readings of PM2.5 started to come to a close around March. PM2.5 stands for particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, and in some instances even going down to sizes as small as 0.001 microns or less, making it a significant risk to human health and thus a major factor in the calculation of the overall levels of air pollution.

March through to April showed a further drop, with March’s reading of 23.1 μg/m³ being followed by 19.4 μg/m³ in April, and then the cleanest reading of the year with a World Health Organization target bracket having being achieved (10 μg/m³ or less), with a reading of exactly 10 μg/m³ being taken in May. This was also followed by an equally decent reading of 12.6 μg/m³ in June, making these two months the cleanest out of the entire year and the period of time between April through to September being when the air quality is at its cleanest.

What are some of the main pollutants found in the air in Novi Sad?

With much of its pollution stemming from sources such as vehicular or industrial emissions, as well as the burning of raw organic materials, it stands to reason that much of Novi Sad’s polluted air would contain related chemical contaminants. Among these are ones such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂), with nitrogen dioxide being the main culprit in vehicle fumes and emissions, found in high quantities over areas that see larger densities of traffic.

Other pollutants released would be ones such as volatile organic compounds (VOC's) and black carbon, both of which are released from the incomplete combustion of both organic material as well as fossil fuels, and would thus find their source from vehicles, factories and even homes. Some examples of VOC's include ones such as benzene, toluene and formaldehyde, as well as black carbon being the main component of soot, highly carcinogenic when respired, as well as having damaging effects to the environment.