Air pollution control, part III. Measuring and monitoring air pollutants

1979 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 315
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiqing Chen ◽  
Deyun Wang ◽  
Adnen Elamraoui ◽  
Haixiang Guo

Abstract Air pollution seriously affects human health. The traffic and production restriction is widely used for controlling heavy air pollution. However, the effectiveness of these two policies has not been scientifically verified through a city-level study. COVID-19 pandemic caused lockdowns in many cities, which makes it possible to verify the effectiveness of these two policies. Taken Wuhan as the study area, this study firstly verifies the existence of lockdown effect on air pollution and analyzes the evolution rule of six air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, CO and O3) using statistical methods. Then the structural break points in six air pollutants are detected with the regression discontinuity design model. Because Spring Festival overlapping COVID-19 may also affect the air pollution, in order to avoid the disturbance of Spring Festival on the results, the Spring Festival effect is also validated. The results illustrate that the effects of traffic and production restriction on six air pollutants are obviously different, in which the concentrations of PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 decrease significantly, while traffic and production restriction has no apparent effects on SO2, CO and O3. Moreover, the structural break points are verified in the four air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and CO), and the structural break points are caused by lockdown instead of Spring Festival. This study revealed how the traffic and production restriction affected the air pollution at a city level, and provided strong implementation basis to the air pollution control policy.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
pp. 8247-8263 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wang ◽  
T. Zhu ◽  
J. Zheng ◽  
R. Y. Zhang ◽  
S. Q. Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract. China implemented systematic air pollution control measures during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and Paralympics to improve air quality. This study used a versatile mobile laboratory to conduct in situ monitoring of on-road air pollutants along Beijing's Fourth Ring Road on 31 selected days before, during, and after the Olympics air pollution control period. A suite of instruments with response times of less than 30 s was used to measure temporal and spatial variations in traffic-related air pollutants, including NOx, CO, PM1.0 surface area (S(PM1)), black carbon (BC), and benzene, toluene, the sum of ethylbenzene, and m-, p-, and o-xylene (BTEX). During the Olympics (8–23 August, 2008), on-road air pollutant concentrations decreased significantly, by up to 54% for CO, 41% for NOx, 70% for SO2, 66% for BTEX, 12% for BC, and 18% for SPM1, compared with the pre-control period (before 20 July). Concentrations increased again after the control period ended (after 20 September), with average increases of 33% for CO, 42% for NOx, 60% for SO2, 40% for BTEX, 26% for BC, and 37% for S(PM1), relative to the control period. Variations in pollutants concentrations were correlated with changes in traffic speed and the number and types of vehicles on the road. Throughout the measurement periods, the concentrations of NOx, CO, and BTEX varied markedly with the numbers of light- and medium-duty vehicles (LDVs and MDVs, respectively) on the road. Only after 8 August was a noticeable relationship found between BC and S(PM1) and the number of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). Additionally, BC and S(PM1) showed a strong correlation with SO2 before the Olympics, indicating possible industrial sources from local emissions as well as regional transport activities in the Beijing area. Such factors were identified in measurements conducted on 6 August in an area southwest of Beijing. The ratio of benzene to toluene, a good indicator of traffic emissions, shifted suddenly from about 0.26 before the Olympics to approximately 0.48 after the Olympics began. This finding suggests that regulations on traffic volume and restrictions on the use of painting solvents were effective after the Olympics began. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of air pollution control measures and identified local and regional pollution sources within and surrounding the city of Beijing. The findings will be invaluable for emission inventory evaluations and model verifications.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueyan Liu ◽  
Xiaolong Gao

China’s current Air Quality Index (AQI) system only considers one air pollutant which has the highest concentration value. In order to comprehensively evaluate the urban air quality of Jiangsu Province, this paper has studied the air quality of 13 cities in that province from April 2015 to March 2018 based on an expanded AQI system that includes six major air pollutants. After expanding the existing air quality evaluation standards of China, this paper has calculated the air quality evaluation scores of cities in Jiangsu Province based on the six major air pollutants by using the improved Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model. This paper has further analyzed the effectiveness of air pollution control policies in Jiangsu Province and its different cities during the study period. The findings are as follows: there are distinct differences in air quality for different cities in Jiangsu Province; except for coastal cities such as Nantong, Yancheng and Lianyungang, the southern cities of Jiangsu generally have better air quality than the northern cities. The causes of these differences include not only natural factors such as geographical location and wind direction, but also economic factors and energy structure. In addition, air pollution control policies have achieved significant results in Nantong, Changzhou, Wuxi, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Yancheng, Zhenjiang, Tai’an and Lianyungang. Among them, Nantong has seen the biggest improvement, 20.28%; Changzhou and Wuxi have improved their air quality by more than 10%, while Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Yancheng have improved their air quality by more than 5%. However, the air quality of Nanjing, Huai’an, Xuzhou, and Suqian has worsened by different degrees compared that of the last period within the beginning period, during which Suqian’s air quality has declined by 20.07% and Xuzhou’s by 16.32%.


Author(s):  
Ruimin Chen ◽  
Jieyuan Li ◽  
Hong Wang ◽  
Peng Chen ◽  
Xing‘an Dong ◽  
...  

Various technologies have been developed towards the air pollution control to mitigate adverse impact of pollutants on human health and ecological environment. Photocatalysis is a promising technology because it can...


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 12857-12898 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wang ◽  
T. Zhu ◽  
J. Zheng ◽  
R. Y. Zhang ◽  
S. Q. Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract. China implemented systematic air pollution control measures during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and Paralympics to improve air quality. This study used an innovative mobile laboratory to conduct in situ monitoring of on-road air pollutants along Beijing's 4th Ring Road on 31 selected days before, during, and after the Olympics air pollution control period. A suite of instruments with response times of less than 30 s was used to measure temporal and spatial variations in traffic-related air pollutants, including NOx, CO, PM1.0 surface area (SPM1), black carbon (BC), and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m-, p-, and o-xylene (BTEX). During the Olympics (8–23 August 2008), on-road air pollutant concentrations decreased significantly by up to 54% for CO, 41% for NOx, 70% for SO2, 66% for BTEX, 12% for BC, and 18% for SPM1 compared to the pre-control period (before 20 July). Concentrations increased again after the control period ended (after 20 September), with average increases of 33% for CO, 42% for NOx, 60% for SO2, 40% for BTEX, 26% for BC, and 37% for SPM1. Variations in pollutants concentrations were correlated with changes in traffic speed and the number and types of vehicles on the road. Throughout the measurement periods, the concentrations of NOx, CO, and BTEX varied markedly with the numbers of light- and medium-duty vehicles (LDVs and MDVs, respectively) on the road. Only after 8 August was a noticeable relationship between BC and SPM1 and the number of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) found. Additionally, BC and SPM1 showed a strong correlation with SO2 before the Olympics, indicating possible industrial sources from local emissions as well as regional transport activities in the Beijing area. Such factors were identified in measurements conducted on 6 August in an area southwest of Beijing. The ratio of benzene to toluene, a good indicator of traffic emissions, shifted suddenly from about 0.26 before the Olympics to approximately 0.48 after the Olympics began. This finding suggests that regulations on traffic volume and restrictions on the use of painting solvents were effective after the Olympics began. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of air pollution control measures and identified local and regional pollution sources within and surrounding the city of Beijing. The findings will be invaluable for emission inventory evaluations and model verifications.


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