Point source pollution

Industrial point sources of air pollution.

A point source of pollution is a single identifiable source of air, water, thermal, noise or light pollution. A point source has negligible extent, distinguishing it from other pollution source geometries. The sources are called point sources because in mathematical modeling, they can be approximated as a mathematical point to simplify analysis. Pollution point sources are identical to other physics, engineering, optics, and chemistry point sources and include:

• Air pollution from an industrial source, rather than an airport or a road, considered a line source or a forest fire which is considered an area source, or volume source.
• Water pollution from an oil refinery wastewater discharge outlet^[1]
• Noise pollution from a jet engine
• Disruptive seismic vibration from a localized seismic study
• Light pollution from an intrusive street light
• Thermal pollution from an industrial process outfall
• Radio emissions from an interference-producing electrical device

References

1. C.Michael Hogan. 2010. Water pollution. Encyclopedia of Earth, Topic ed. Mark McGinley, ed. in chief C.Cleveland, National Council on Science and the Environment, Washington DC