This project initiated from April 1, 2011 to carry out the work related to the establishment of the AI identification function of road pollution. The implementation results of the final report are collected until November 25, 2011, and all task items have been completed in accordance with the contract. The fugitive dust monitoring station adjacent to the Pingbei Sand and gravel dredging zone, the average concentration of PM10 from July to October of 2011 was 25.2 μg/m3, which was 35.3% lower than the 39.0 μg/m3 in the same period of 2010. The results of public satisfaction survey carried out by the Environmental Protection Bureau of Pingtung County Government (PTEPB) showed that 80.5% of the public evaluations were positive in 2021, an increase of 4.5% compared with 76% in 2010. It demonstrates that the inspection and control plan on sand and gravel field integrated with the intelligent monitoring and dispatch of this plan, in addition to reducing the occurrence frequency of pollution sources, is more affirmed by the public. The UAV aerial inspection, 7 violations were found in 2021, a 50% decrease compared with those in 2020. Violations of 123 cases were seized by CCTV, a 63% decrease from last year. The 696 sand and gravel vehicles were inspected, with a compliance rate of 96%, an increase of 1% from last year. The occurrence frequency of river fugitive dust is reduced by cooperation with the 7th Rivers Management Office of Water Resources Agency to control the river fugitive dust, including the improvement of bare riverbed along the Gaoping River, enhancing the pollution control of dredging vehicles around the dredging work area, assisting in the early warning and response of river fugitive dust, and strengthening the washing and sweeping of dedicated roads, etc. The execution results of this plan are summarized as the followings.
This project established 10 connections of the CCTV fugitive dust monitoring system with the AI identification function of road pollution. The system identified a total of 10,069 cases, including 9,504 true negatives and 393 true positives. The overall system identification accuracy is 98%. In addition, the 10 CCTV system reported 512 cases of road pollution incidents. There were 393 true positives, of which 119 false positives after manual recheck, and a false positive rate of 1.2%. There were 53 false negatives through the manual recheck, the false negative rate was 12%. On the response measures executed in the Pingbei sand and gravel dredging zone this year, through the establishment of the AI identification function of road pollution and initiating factors of the road pollution judged by AI to issue the early warning notifications, as well as the improvement of the response, the overall labor costs were reduced and the emission duration of pollutants was also shortened. A total of 393 pollution notifications were made, of which 364 improvements were completed, and the improvement rate was 93%, and a monthly improvement rate increased to 100% since October in 2021. The improvement of pollution notifications was completed 364 times, and the length of road fugitive dust pollution around the sand and gravel dredging zone ameliorated was 2,184 kilometers. According to the guidelines of street dust removed by washing and sweeping operations released by Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the estimated reduction amounts of TSP and PM10 were 30.1 and 5.7 tons, respectively. Through the air monitoring station for fugitive dust in the Tuku Elementary School adjacent to the Pingbei sand and gravel dredging area, the measured values from July to November in 2011 was compared with the same period in 2010, and the reduction rate was 31%.
In terms of the intelligent monitoring of the operation of the car wash in the sand and gravel yard, the overall notifications were 89 times, 39 times for no sandstone vehicles entering or leaving the gravel yard, and 50 times for the empty vehicles leaving the gravel field without using the car washing platform. The task team notified the sub-project of air quality control to strengthen the guidance of the empty vehicles which should enter the car washing platform before leaving the gravel yard. After the implementation of on-site coaching and on-site inspection of the sub-projects of air quality control, the two sand and gravel fields have no empty cars not entering the car washing platform since they started self-discipline in October, and the utilization rate of car washing equipment has been fully controlled and the utilization rate increased from 85% to 100%. The PM10 reduction amount was estimated about 1.5 tons/year.
Guiding the street washing vehicles jointly provided by Ligang Township and Gaoshu Township to set up the GPS driving recorders, incorporating into the intelligent monitoring system and non-movement notifications within a specified period, with a total of 54 notifications. From June to November, the number of GPS intelligent monitoring reports showed a downward trend month by month. In November, only 1 time each was notified in two places for non-movement of the street washing vehicle over the specified period. The main reasons were eating a meals and physiological needs of the driver, which did not affect the overall full-day progress of street washing operation. The overall promotion of the guidance on road maintenance of street washing vehicles to install GPS driving recorders, incorporating into the intelligent monitoring system, has achieved the regular operations and management of the street washing vehicles, and the annual road length of 2 maintenance areas has been increased by 2,156 km, and the reduction amounts of TSP and PM10 were 30 and 5.6 tons, respectively.
Compare and verify the improvement of street dust loading from April to June before the plan to install the AI monitoring system and from July to November after the installation on the main roads around the Pingbei sand and gravel dredging zone. The data showed the average of street dust loading from July to November for the 4 main roads used by sandstone vehicles were lower than those from April to June, and the reduction rate of street dust loading was between 23% and 41%. In addition, 3 river dust monitoring stations were set up between May and June. The Luxiang Riverside Park Monitoring Station in Ligang Township, from the day of operation of monitoring station to October, the monitoring values were all lower than the early warning value (100 μg/m3), but from November 1 to November 24, there were 44 hourly monitoring values greater than the early warning value. The task team of this plan inspected on-site to confirm that there was no river fugitive dust occurred, then notified the inspection and control team for sand and gravel field to assist the contact to the operator of sand and gravel field to strengthen the implementation of watering on the roads inside and outside the site, and continued to monitor the situation that the concentration did not increase. The Wandan No. 1 Pumping Plant Monitoring Station and Xinyuan Elementary School Monitoring Station in Xinyuan Township, from the day of operation of monitoring station to October, the monitoring values were all lower than the early warning value (100 μg/m3), but from November 1 to November 24, there were 15 hourly monitoring values greater than the early warning value. The task team of this plan inspected on-site to confirm that there was no river fugitive dust occurred. In addition, the parallel comparison results of the air quality micro-sensors and the nearby river fugitive dust monitoring stations along the Gaopingxi River Basin showed that the PM10 concentrations of the air quality micro-sensors at the 6 fugitive dust monitoring points were all close to those of the fugitive dust monitoring stations. Although there were still some variations in the monitoring values, the two trends were consistent in terms of the concentration variations.
In terms of the application of air quality micro-sensors on the air quality monitoring in the sand and gravel dredging zone, the values of 12-hour average were higher only in a few days among the overall PM10 measurement values, the other monitoring values were below 50 μg/m3, indicating that the pollution control in the sand and gravel zone is effective. During the operation period of the sand and gravel field (from 7:00 to 19:00), a total of 5 times of hourly PM10 monitoring values were higher than 100 μg/m3. Checked the nearby CCTV fugitive dust monitoring record, the slight fugitive dust was mainly caused by the vehicles running on the dry road. Through the notifications of the sub-projects of air quality control to the operators, the PM10 measurement values decreased in 2 hours after enhancing the road washing of outreach roads around the sand and gravel field, indicating that the micro sensor can still be used in the forecast of air quality in the sand and gravel dredging zone and the immediate activation of pollution prevention and control measures.
Through the technology monitoring of this project, including CCTV, AI identification of road pollution and notification system, operation monitoring of car washing platform in gravel yard, GPS monitoring of street washing vehicles, new river fugitive dust monitoring stations to strengthen the dust monitoring network and application of micro-sensors along the Gaopingxi watershed, and cooperation with the 7th Rivers Management Office of Water Resources Agency and close contact with the sub-projects of air quality control to carry out preventive watering operations and deploy response capacity in advance. The average of monitoring maximum hourly PM10 concentration during the occurrence of river fugitive dust is 116 μg/m3 in 2021, which is 70% lower than those (396 μg/m3) on the event days of 2020.
