Estimación de los Factores que Influyen en la Generación del Contaminante PM_2.5 en Temuco y Padre Las Casas, Chile

In the present study, we investigate different factors related to demography, land use, transportation and height that influence the generation of the PM_2.5 contaminant due to woodburning in the conurbation of Temuco and Padre Las Casas, Chile. First, a global regression model was implemented to explore the relationships between the variables, and subsequently, spatial regression models were implemented (geographically weighted regression and spatial error model). Results suggest that height and infrastructure density have a strong association with the PM_2.5 contaminant using the global regression and spatial error models. However, results indicate that residential density, distance to high vehicle congestion, and length of local roads within a vicinity of 100 m are significant when employing the geographically weighted regression. In addition, the latter type of regression model presents the best performance when compared to the other two models (global regression and spatial error). These results may help authorities in the allocation of resources to improve air quality in the studied conurbation. Future research should include other types of spatial regression models and other relevant variables that may influence the generation of PM_2.5 due to woodburning.