Identification of Sources of Fine Particulate Matter in Kandy, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Kandy is the second largest city in Sri Lanka and a major tourist destination. It is a fast growing city with continuous construction of buildings, roads and historical places. More than 100 samples of fine particulate matter (PM) were collected using a GENT stacked filter sampler from a fixed site at the regional sampling station of Department of Meteorology situated in Katugastota, Kandy over the period of 2012 to 2014. Black carbon (BC) in these filters were determined by reflectance measurements while their elemental compositions were determined using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Analysis of the elemental data suggests that the PM in Kandy originates largely from re-suspended soil and anthropogenic sources. The fine particulate matter data including BC and major elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Cl, Fe, Zn, Ni, Cu, V, S, Br, Pb, Cr, K, Ca and Ti) was analyzed using EPA-PMF version 5.0 (Positive Matrix Factorization) to explore the possible sources of the PM at the study site. Five factors were found and identified as soil, aged sea salt, vehicular emissions, biomass burning, and industrial sources.