Blowing dust and highway safety in the southwestern United States: Characteristics of dust emission “hotspots” and management implications

Despite the widespread media attention of chain-reaction traffic incidents and property damage caused by windblown dust in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, very few studies have provided in-depth analysis on this issue. Remote sensing and field observations reveal that wind erosion in the southw...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:The Science of the total environment 2018-04, Vol.621, p.1023-1032
Hauptverfasser: Li, Junran, Kandakji, Tarek, Lee, Jeffrey A., Tatarko, John, Blackwell, John, Gill, Thomas E., Collins, Joe D.
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Despite the widespread media attention of chain-reaction traffic incidents and property damage caused by windblown dust in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, very few studies have provided in-depth analysis on this issue. Remote sensing and field observations reveal that wind erosion in the southwestern U.S. typically occurs in localized source areas, characterized as “hotspots”, while most of the landscape is not eroding. In this study, we identified the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of hotspots that may contribute dust blowing onto highways in the southwestern U.S. We further classified the hotspots for the potential of blowing dust production based upon field observations and wind erosion modeling. Results of land use and land cover show that shrubland, grassland, and cropland accounted for 42%, 31%, and 21% of the overall study area, respectively. However, of the 620 total hotspots identified, 164 (26%), 141 (22%), and 234 (38%) are located on shrubland, grassland, and cropland, respectively. Barren land represented 0.9% of the land area but 8% of the dust hotspots. While a majority of these hotspots are located close to highways, we focused on 55 of them, which are located 3.79kg m−2, yielding highly hazardous dust emissions to ground transportation with visibility
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.124