Fluctuational Behavior of Ground Level Ozone due to Traffic Volume Before, During and After Festive Holidays in Kelantan

The focus of this study is to investigate the fluctuation behaviour of ground level ozone concentration before, during and after festive holidays due to traffic volume and to differentiate of O3 and NO2 between the periods. Hourly monitoring records of O3 and NO2 in Kota Bharu for 2013 and 2014 were obtained from Department of Environment (DoE), which then extracted according to selected festive holidays. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistic, box and whisker, time-series and diurnal plot as well as one-way ANOVA. The primary traffic counts were manually conducted and classified into five classes. The result showed unclear trends of time-series that unable to state either O3 concentration were higher before, during or after festive holidays. The O3 and NO2 concentration suggest typical trends for the both pollutants. O3 concentration shown uni-modal peak around noon (12 p.m. to 2 p.m.) while, NO2 concentration suggest dwi-modal peaks in morning (9 a.m. to l0 a.m.) and in evening (8 p.m. to 11p.m.). The traffic volume counts shown that the traffic flow were highest before the Eid-Fitr festive holiday in 2017 with 5,008 due to return of immigrants and festive preparation activity, but these activities not significantly contribute to changes in festive holidays O3 variation The increment of traffic volume is insignificant to increase NO2 emission as well as the O3 concentration.