Multivariate Analysis of Vehicular Emissions in Parts of Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

The focus of this study is to monitor the incidence of vehicular emissions in some parts of Benin City in addition to studying the spatial variation of the pollutant using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Seven (7) georeferenced sampling points were employed for data collection and gaseous pollutants such as; dinitrogen oxide (NO_2), carbon monoxide (CO) including the total radiation were monitored in the morning and evening for 35 days with the aid of portable toxic gas monitors and radiation alert meters. Also measured were maximum temperature and wind speed using infra-red thermometers and portable anemometer respectively. From the result, it was observed that for temperature, the mean ± standard deviation during morning session was 30.549 ± 1.3716 and during evening season it was 28.879 ± 1.1788. For NO_2, the mean ± standard deviation during morning session was 0.0181 ± 0.01119 and during evening season it was 0.0230 ± 0.01282. For CO, the mean ± standard deviation during morning session was 0.5428 ± 0.36396 and during evening season it was 0.6169 ± 0.32395. For total radiation, the mean ± standard deviation during morning session was 0.247 ± 0.1285 and during evening season it was 0.281 ± 0.1298. On the significance difference of the overall results, it was revealed that the difference in concentration of vehicular emissions during the early hours of the morning and peak hours of evening is significant. With a calculated partial Eta squared based on Pillai’s trace of 0.325, it was concluded that; there exist about 32.50% variability among the dependent variables.