Abstract

Emission characteristics of major offensive odorants were investigated using odor samples collected from two urban stormwater catch basins with highly contrasting environmental conditions. A total of 6 major offensive odorants (H₂S, CH₃SH, DMS, DMDS, CH₃CHO (AA), and NH₃) were measured. For this comparative analysis, odor intensity (OI) of all odorants was derived from their concentration data via empirical equations introduced by Nagata. Both the absolute magnitude of odorant concentrations and their OI values were used concurrently to evaluate the occurrence pattern of each individual odorant. According to our analysis, RSCs including CH₃SH, H₂S, and DMS tend to exhibit the highest odor strengths among all 6 compounds investigated. The overall results of our study suggest that the emissions of major offensive odorants from urban stormwater catch brains can be explained at least partially by the temporal trend of human activity.