Composition of black crust in different sites in Europe – estimation using statistical methods.

The EC TeACH project (Technologies and tools to prioritize assessment and diagnosis of air pollution impact on immovable and movable cultural heritage) sets out to understand the different types of damage on cultural heritage in different sites: Oslo (Norway), Florence (Italy), Salè (Marocco), Cologne (Germany). There was performed the characterization of damage layer including the ion compounds performed by ion chromatography (IC) and elemental composition, carried out by coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). To understand the origin of the ions and elements detected in the black crust specimens, the data obtained during analysis were analyzed statistically using the R Project for Statistical Computing. The results achieved shows that in all cases the SO2 has been proved to have among the pollutants the priority role in damage layer formation. Moreover, there has been reflected the impact of local pollutant sources on damage processes occurring, e.g. coal combustion and emission from railway transport in case of Cologne Cathedral, the marine aerosol in case of coastal sites Sale and Oslo.