1. The Environmental Load and the Trend
The population of Tainan City according to the statistics of the end of 2011 is 1.876 million. The population density is 855 people per km2 which is in the fifth place among five municipalities. There are about 8,462 factories in Tainan City, and the density is 3.9 factories per km2, which is higher than the national average, 2.18 factories per km2. The numbers of factories has been decreasing since 2002. The industrial structure in Tainan is mainly composed by the manufacturing of metal products, mechanic equipments, and plastic products. The numbers of factories in Southern Taiwan Science Park have been increasing year by year since 2000, but slowed down since 2009. There are currently 273 industries in the park. The total emission of Shinying Industrial Park is the highest among all main industrial parks, which is about 2,256.3 tons a year, followed by Paoan, Shanshang, and Quantian Industrial Park.
The numbers of construction sites in Tainan City has been greatly increased since 2001. In 2004, the number reached 7743, which is the second high record in recent decade, and it decreased rapidly afterwards. Until the number reached its lowest point of the recent decade in 2007, 6266, and it started to increase once again in the following years. In the end of 2010, the numbers of construction sites has reached 8282, which is the highest point in the recent decade. The number dropped to 7315 in 2011.
There are 2 million cars in Tainan City. Most of them are motorcycles, which are about 1.41 million, and the number is increasing yearly. Small vehicles follow, which are about 480,000. The growth of diesel vehicles has stopped since 2007. Besides, the gasoline consumption of diesel and the numbers of gas stations are both under a growth. From 2001 to 2011, the general gasoline consumption increased from 851,139 KL to 889,253 KL. The increase rate is 4.48%. During the same period, the gasoline consumption of diesel is from 265,488 KL to 387,788 KL, the growth rate is 46%. The numbers of gas stations has been increasing from 222 to 301 during 2001 and 2011, the growth rate is 35.6%.
The numbers of petitions has reached 6,981 in 2011, and the cases keep increasing. Among the petitions, the compliant about odor are more frequently associated with factories. To classify the petitions by industries, manufacturing of leather and plastic products tend to produce odor. As the non-odor related petitions are most about open burning.
2. Current Situation of Air Quality and its Analysis
The proportion of poor air quality has been decreased from 7.62% to 1.16% from 2006 to 2011. The improvement has reached 85%. Furthermore, Tainan City has reached its annual goal of 2011, the proportion of PSI>100 is 2.9% during 42 days, which is also lower than the national average. Tainan City broke the record of the best air quality, showing the effectiveness of the city’s measures and regulations.
According to the analysis of the pollution characteristics in each surveillance station, the ozone and suspended particles in Shanhua station and Tainan station have been the same, which shows there are still a sizable proportion of the ozone pollution. Except for the influences from the ozone pollution transported out of the city, the pollution and emission of nearby industrial park is estimated to be also the reason increasing the environmental load. The living style; for example, the intensive mobile sources of air pollution, in the downtown of Tainan could be the reason why the proportion of poor ozone still go on in Shanhua and Tainan station.
Annan and Shinying Station are located in suburbs. The inspection reports are mainly about suspended particles over the years. Except for the influences from the pollution of long-distance transportation, the air around the area is also influenced by the primary particulate matters, such as the construction site and bare soil surface, are greatly related.
In terms of seasonal pollution characteristics, the proportion of poor suspended particles tends to be found from November to March. On the other hand, the proportion of poor ozone tends to happen in spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November). These results are related to the city’s geographical and climate conditions.
The concentration of each air pollutant in Tainan City keeps decreasing year by year. Of which the eighth largest hourly average of ozone has been lower than the legal limit for four years. Therefore, the ozone has become level 2 control region. However, the average proportion of suspended particles and the eighth largest hourly average of ozone still exceed the legal limit, which will be the main point for Tainan City to improve in the future.
3. The Analysis of the Emission Structure of Each Pollutant
Based on TEDS 7.1 Emission Database and the review and update of the project, the list of emission has been updated and showed in three aspects: point, line, and area sources, in the chart below.
TSP PM10 SOx NOx NMHC CO
Point Source (ton/year) 5,977 3,672 5,931 6,279 9,038 3,995
Area Source (ton/year) 31,422 9,559 330 1,695 38,932 4,134
Line Source (ton/year) 2,992 2,153 82 21,921 14,854 33,054
Total amount of emission (ton/year) 40,391 15,384 6,343 29,895 62,824 41,183
4. The Review of the Precaution Strategies of Air Pollution in Tainan City
This project assists in coordinating 2011 Air Pollution Precaution Project. In this project, the goal had been set for 2010 to 2011, also, the local characteristics, innovative measures, and short-period regulation strategies were included. The project tracked and reviewed the air pollution precaution goal in 2011 and its actual completion. Most of them met the expectation. There were few under the expectation would be brought into the plan next year to track and improve. In terms of local characteristics and innovative measures, three programs were promoted in the 2011 Air Pollution Project. First one is “Reward on motorcycle check and the elimination”. Second one is “Pay your AP (Air Pollution) fee so simple and easy!” and the third one is “Zero flying-dust”. Furthermore, on the short-period regulation strategies from 2011 to 2012, considering the rural-urban development divide is still obvious even after the merger, to make the best use of the resources, the project conducts separate management strategies according to regional characteristics. The operating structure included the regulations on fixed pollutants, mobile pollutants, effusive pollutants, and the feeling of people and low carbon life. Currently, the short-period strategies are designing the most appropriate measures suitable for local environment, to reduce the impact of the rural-urban development divide and the public opposition. The mid-term and long-term strategies will be to enhance the efficiency of the administrative and to apply the strategies to all.
5. Track and Review the Effectiveness of Precaution Project of Air Pollution
A. Conducting ”The Assessment Guidelines and the Project of the Air Quality and the Indoor Air Quality Improvement and Maintenance in Tainan City 2011”, the city government separate each air pollution projects into major and minor projects. And the items for assessment include the progress, the quality, and the effectiveness, in the end, to undertake and to score each project.
B. The result of 2011 assessment
Until December 2011, on the major projects, Tainan City got 86.38 points based on the inspection of diesel vehicles dynamometer smoke emission. Tainan City was praised by meeting the expectation of the information timeliness and information completeness, and also the smooth progress and the well-management of the project. On minor projects, the city government won its 87.33 points with “PM2.5 Regulation Strategies and the Assessment of the Health Risk Project”. Because the project itself is simpler, it is less to be postponed or be difficult to undertake.
C. The analysis and review of the assessment of Environment Protection Administration
In 2010, Environment Protection Administration announced the assessment result; Tainan City got 90.55 points and was rated as A plus, which means Tainan City has won the affirmation from the Administration and the committee. Also, the project will pay attention to the assessment result monthly, to review and try to improve on every month’s review meeting.
6. The Satisfaction of People on Air Pollution Regulation Measures
According to the survey of the project in 2010, there were almost 88.6% of people claimed that no factories or restaurants produce bad smells or strong odor near their homes. 89.8% of people said no road surfaces being polluted by constructions near their homes. And 82.2% of people thought Tainan’s streets are clean. 85.4% of people are willing to comply with the policies of centralized burning the paper money and one incense in one pot. 68.9% of people agreed with the policy of stopping burning the paper money. 80.9% of people supported the idea to greet the Gods with food, instead of paper money, and to use bigger par value and environment-friendly paper money. Also, 74.5% of people thought there are fewer high-emitting vehicles. Only 52.1% of people were aware of Tainan City Government providing subsidies for citizens to buy electric auto bikes. There were 37.4% of people thought convenient stores would be good places to charge auto bikes, followed by gas stations and motorcycle store, which were 34.9% and 8.1%. 93.8% of companies were satisfied with the attitude of the staff of Environmental Protection Bureau. Also, 93.4% of companies were satisfied with the service quality and the attitude of Environmental Protection Bureau. Most companies gave positive comments to the staff of Environmental Protection Bureau.
43.3% of interviewers noticed the improvement of the air quality in Tainan City, which indicated that there were still half of citizens who did not feel the air quality had been improved than last year. But there were more than 67.1% of people who are positive to the effort and the result of Environment Protection Bureau. Most people were still affirmative to the Bureau’s efforts in recent years.
7. The Maintenance and Management of Air Clean Zone
After the merger of cities, the bases of Air Clean Zones have been increased from 15 to 171 in the Great Tainan City. This project was playing an assistant role in helping Environmental Protection Bureau to amend “The Assessment Points of Maintenance and Management of the Air Clean Zones in Tainan City 2011”, also to have usual assessment in 152 areas; moreover, to separate the Zones into three groups, one is “Eco-park” with green on the bare surfaces and polluted area, the other is “Eco-road” which means to green the road, and the last group is “Green Schools/Communities”. In each groups, the best fives will be picked and to compete in the assessment in the end of the year. The experts and scholars will select four excellent organizations and to award them. The project will also hold one info session about funding the Air Clean Zones and one seminar about the technology of maintenance and management.
8. Related Matters
This project has assisted with maintaining the information of energy saving and emission reduction on Tainan City’s “Ecolife” blog and to be awarded excellence, and to raise two advocacies about energy saving and emission reduction, which include the healthy diet of “low-carbon and low calories diet” and one info session about “the Guidelines of Subsidizing the Communities for Executing the Energy Saving and Emission Reduction and the Principles for the Write-off of the Fund”. Also, this project cooperated with other departments with five advocacies of energy saving and emission reduction.
On the 14th Cross-Strait Environmental Protection Conference, the “The Forum of the Low Carbon City—Tainan” was held under the cooperation with the government. The secretary for the Environmental Protection, Chang Huang-zhen, delivered a speech about “How Tainan Becomes a Low Carbon City and the Future Development”. Many professors and experts from overseas, mainland China, and Taiwan attended the conference. A seminar about the business of preventing air pollution was held. Scholars were invited to deliver specific speeches about the future PM2.5 standard, the development at home and abroad, the air quality of Taiwan in the future and the pollution characteristics. A “Low Carbon Cities Demonstration” was held in order to exchange the experiences and skills through the demonstration between cities.
