Dynamics of Air Pollution in La Paz and El Alto : towards the development of an Air Quality forecast tool

Valeria MARDONEZ

La Paz and El Alto are two Andean cities located on the west of Bolivia at c.. 3600 and 4000 m.a.s.l., respectively. Although industry is not very developed in either of the cities, they are considered relatively polluted cities. Combining the height, topography, natural surrounding sources and agricultural biomass burning taking place on the east of Bolivia, air quality in both cities becomes a serious risk for their population. With this in mind and in collaboration with many European Institutes as well as local Institutions, a two year campaign (2016-2018) was performed in order to characterize air quality in La Paz and El Alto, its major contributors and the impact it has on human health. During the campaign online and offline instruments measured key chemical and physical parameters in order to characterize the emissions, their sources in this region and their impact on health by using source apportionment approaches and chemical transport models.

Supervisors : P. LAJ (CHIANTI) and G. UZU (CHIANTI)