The increased occurrence of high PM(particulate matter) episodes in Seoul metropolitan area is a major concern to the general public. The major sources of PM in urban include the emissions from vehicle exhaust, combustions of fossil fuel for heating buildings, and fugitive dust such as road dust, construction dust and tire/brake wears. According to the national air pollutant emission inventory for Year 2015, the PM10 emission from road dust makes up 24% of total PM10 emissions in Seoul. That is the second-largest emission source in Seoul behind construction dust, and is 11% higher than on-and off-road vehicle emissions. Even though the road dust emission inventory is known to be highly uncertain, road dust is a crucial source that should be controlled because road dust particles may pose significant health risks for the population living near intense traffic locations.

In general, road dust management can be divided into two categories; preventive methods that prevent road dust emissions in advance, and post-management which reduce resuspension of road dust already deposited on the road. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effective post-management methods to reduce resuspension of road dust.

In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the road cleaning method currently in use by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and effective management methods for reducing resuspension of road dust were suggested.