Analysis of urban - industrial expansion and increasing level of ozone concentration as subsiding an environmental management plan for the east of Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area – Brazil

The disorderly growth of metropolitan regions, combined with the lack of efficient air quality management strategies, contributes to the potential increase in O3. That impact might undoubtedly cause harmful and immediate and continuous effects on living organisms. In this sense, the primary objective of this research work is to identify and evaluate the threshold values of the O3 concentration pattern in the expanded region of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area (RJMA). Landsat images were retrieved and showed that there was an expansion to the east and west of the RJMA at an average rate of 32 km2. year−1. After analyzing the air quality data in the region for the period between 2010 and 2018, excess concentrations of O3 were registered to occur every month and across all weather seasons, mainly from October to March (spring and summer), concerning air quality standards, There are significant differences in ozone violations between Paquetá weather station (t = 184 days, 53.2 %) and Porto das Caxias weather station (t = 105 days, 30.2 %). The annual time series of O3 violations during the study period was highly variable, with peaks in the years 2012 (14.3 ± 20.1 violations), 2013 (12.3 ± 15.7 violations), and 2015 (23 ± 15.7 violations). Furthermore, there was an increase in the value of surpluses of O3 along 2016, marked by a longer period of excess concentration from August to March. Despite advances in environmental legislation, air quality management protocols still lack effective measures to mitigate the impacts of O3 on the environment, which highlights the need for developing timely and additional interdisciplinary investigations in the coming future.