Assessment of German population exposure levels to PM10 based on multiple spatial-temporal data

Particulate matter is the key to increasing urban air pollution, and research into pollution exposure assessment is an important part of environmental health. In order to classify PM 10 air pollution and to investigate the population exposure to the distribution of PM 10 , daily and monthly PM 10 concentrations of 379 air pollution monitoring stations were obtained for a period from 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2017. Firstly, PM 10 concentrations were classified using the head/tail break clustering algorithm to identify locations with elevated PM 10 levels. Subsequently, population exposure levels were calculated using population-weighted PM 10 concentrations. Finally, the power-law distribution was used to test the distribution of PM 10 polluted areas. Our results indicate that the head/tail break algorithm, with an appropriate segmentation threshold, can effectively identify areas with high PM 10 concentrations. The distribution of the population according to exposure level shows that the majority of people is living in polluted areas. The distribution of heavily PM 10 polluted areas in Germany follows the power-law distribution well, but their boundaries differ from the boundaries of administrative cities; some even cross several administrative cities. These classification results can guide policymakers in dividing the country into several areas for pollution control.