Influence of agricultural activities, forest fires and agro-industries on air quality in Thailand Worradorn Phairuang, Mitsuhiko Hata, Masami Furuuchi ⁎ Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan. E-mail: pworradorn@hotmail.com ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 1 February 2016 Revised 21 February 2016 Accepted 23 February 2016 Available online 17 March 2016 Annual and monthly-based emission inventories in northern, central and north-eastern provinces in Thailand, where agriculture and related agro-industries are very intensive, were estimated to evaluate the contribution of agricultural activity, including crop residue burning, forest fires and related agro-industries on air quality monitored in corresponding provinces. The monthly-based emission inventories of air pollutants, or, particulate matter (PM), NOx and SO 2 , for various agricultural crops were estimated based on information on the level of production of typical crops: rice, corn, sugarcane, cassava, soybeans and potatoes using emission factors and other parameters related to country-specific values taking into account crop type and the local residue burning period. The estimated monthly emission inventory was compared with air monitoring data obtained at monitoring stations operated by the Pollution Control Department, Thailand (PCD) for validating the estimated emission inventory. The agro-industry that has the greatest impact on the regions being evaluated, is the sugar processing industry, which uses sugarcane as a raw material and its residue as fuel for the boiler. The backward trajectory analysis of the air mass arriving at the PCD station was calculated to confirm this influence. For the provinces being evaluated which are located in the upper northern, lower northern and northeast in Thailand, agri- cultural activities and forest fires were shown to be closely correlated to the ambient PM concentration while their contribution to the production of gaseous pollutants is much less. © 2016 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. Keywords: Biomass burning Agricultural residue Agro-industry Emission inventory Air pollutants Introduction Biomass burning refers to the burning of existing and dead vegetation including that in forests and agricultural areas. Biomass burning related to agricultural activities, such as crop residue burning represents an important source of air pollutants in many countries, especially in developing coun- tries (Levine et al., 1995; Badarinath et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2011). Biomass burning contributes to more than 50% of the global emission of black carbon into the atmosphere (Bond et al., 2004), e.g., and particulate matters (PMs) from biomass burning affect, not only the environment, but also human health. In developing countries, especially in the Southeast Asia, open biomass burning is a common protocol for handling crops before and after harvesting: for controlling of crop residues and weeds in the field after harvesting is completed (Garivait et al., 2004; Tipayarat and Sajor, 2012). Thailand is an agricultural-based country and generates massive amounts of agricultural waste and the economic contribution of agriculture promises to increase remarkably in the future because of the increasing population as well as growing trade and agro-industries (Kasem and Thapa, 2012). JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 52 (2017) 85 – 97 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail: mfuruch@staff.kanazawa-u.ac.jp (Masami Furuuchi). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2016.02.007 1001-0742/© 2016 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/jes