scholarly journals Pre and Post Covid-19 Lockdown: How the AQI of Three Major Cities of Pakistan will Change?

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 1377-1387
Author(s):  
Ume Laila ◽  
Najma Sadiq ◽  
Tahir Mehmood ◽  
Tooba Rehan Haqqi

Pakistan being in the list of developing countries has shown tremendous response towards the control of pandemic COVID-19. This paper evaluates the pre and post COVID 19 lockdown situation of air quality and provides an evidence of the air quality amid the lockdown and how it started to improve. The air quality indexes of three major cities of Pakistan i.e. Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore are compared, taking into account the indexes before and after the imposition of lockdown.  The city wide presence of major pollutants like Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide also reduced. The results show how taking serious measures can help in reducing the air pollution and help the environment to restore.  Following analytical approach and situational analysis certain inferences have been drawn that the air quality index has worsen, and the atmospheric condition have turn out to be shoddier than the pre-pandemic situation. In the last section certain policy recommendations have been provided in order to maintain a healthy air quality.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (8) ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
Mikulski Maciej

The article presents the problem of air pollution in polish cities on the example of Cracow. The focus was on one of the corrective actions taken by the city – free-fare public transport during high air pollution. Changes in the city's approach to this service since 2015 and consequences for the city budget were presented. Then, the efficiency of free-fare public transport in attracting new passengers was considered. The example of the Nysa town was cited, which introduced such permission for car drivers, but withdrew it three years later. In the next step, the concentration of air pollution before and after the activation of free-fare public transport in the heating season 2018/2019 was analyzed. Particulate matter PM10, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide were taken into account. There was no constant relationship between the changes in the level of these pollutants in the air and the full-paid (or fare-free) public transport. There is also no reason for the need to change parameters based on witch the fare-free public transport is activated. Finally, the necessity of further efforts of central and local authorities to improve air quality as well as further research on sources of air pollution and efficiency of undertaken actions was emphasized. Keywords: fare-free public transport, air pollution, environmental protection


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (20) ◽  
pp. 5831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilmar Hernandez ◽  
Alfredo Mendez

In this paper, a robust analysis of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration measurements taken at Belisario station (Quito, Ecuador) was performed. The data used for the analysis constitute a set of measurements taken from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2019. Furthermore, the analysis was carried out in a robust way, defining variables that represent years, months, days and hours, and classifying these variables based on estimates of the central tendency and dispersion of the data. The estimators used here were classic, nonparametric, based on a bootstrap method, and robust. Additionally, confidence intervals based on these estimators were built, and these intervals were used to categorize the variables under study. The results of this research showed that the NO2 concentration at Belisario station is not harmful to humans. Moreover, it was shown that this concentration tends to be stable across the years, changes slightly during the days of the week, and varies greatly when analyzed by months and hours of the day. Here, the precision provided by both nonparametric and robust statistical methods served to comprehensively proof the aforementioned. Finally, it can be concluded that the city of Quito is progressing on the right path in terms of improving air quality, because it has been shown that there is a decreasing tendency in the NO2 concentration across the years. In addition, according to the Quito Air Quality Index, most of the observations are in either the desirable level or acceptable level of air pollution, and the number of observations that are in the desirable level of air pollution increases across the years.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amanda K. Winter ◽  
Huong Le ◽  
Simon Roberts

Abstract This paper explores the perception and politics of air pollution in Shanghai. We present a qualitative case study based on a literature review of relevant policies and research on civil society and air pollution, in dialogue with air quality indexes and field research data. We engage with the concept of China's authoritarian environmentalism and the political context of ecological civilization. We find that discussions about air pollution are often placed in a frame that is both locally temporal (environment) and internationally developmentalist (economy). We raise questions from an example of three applications with different presentations of air quality index measures for the same time and place. This example and frame highlight the central role and connection between technology, data and evidence, and pollution visibility in the case of the perception of air pollution. Our findings then point to two gaps in authoritarian environmentalism research, revealing a need to better understand (1) the role of technology within this governance context, and (2) the tensions created from this non-participatory approach with ecological civilization, which calls for civil society participation.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 431
Author(s):  
Ayako Yoshino ◽  
Akinori Takami ◽  
Keiichiro Hara ◽  
Chiharu Nishita-Hara ◽  
Masahiko Hayashi ◽  
...  

Transboundary air pollution (TAP) and local air pollution (LAP) influence the air quality of urban areas. Fukuoka, located on the west side of Japan and affected by TAP from the Asian continent, is a unique example for understanding the contribution of LAP and TAP. Gaseous species and particulate matter (PM) were measured for approximately three weeks in Fukuoka in the winter of 2018. We classified two distinctive periods, LAP and TAP, based on wind speed. The classification was supported by variations in the concentration of gaseous species and by backward trajectories. Most air pollutants, including NOx and PM, were high in the LAP period and low in the TAP period. However, ozone was the exception. Therefore, our findings suggest that reducing local emissions is necessary. Ozone was higher in the TAP period, and the variation in ozone concentration was relatively small, indicating that ozone was produced outside of the city and transported to Fukuoka. Thus, air pollutants must also be reduced at a regional scale, including in China.


2018 ◽  
Vol 154 ◽  
pp. 03012
Author(s):  
Edita Rosana Widasari ◽  
Barlian Henryranu Prasetio ◽  
Hurriyatul Fitriyah ◽  
Reza Hastuti

Sidoarjo mudflow or known as Lapindo mudflow erupted since 2006. The Sidoarjo mudflow is located in Sidoarjo City, East Java, Indonesia. The mudflow-affected area has high air pollution level and high health risk. Therefore, in this paper was implemented a system that can categorize the level of air pollution into several categories. The air quality index can be categorized using fuzzy logic algorithm based on the concentration of air pollutant parameters in the mudflow-affected area. Furthermore, Dataflow programming is used to process the fuzzy logic algorithm. Based on the result, the measurement accuracy of the air quality index in the mudflow-affected area has an accuracy rate of 93.92% in Siring Barat, 93.34% in Mindi, and 95.96% in Jatirejo. The methane concentration is passes the standard quality even though the air quality index is safe. Hence, the area is indicated into Hazardous level. In addition, Mindi has highest and stable methane concentration. It means that Mindi has high-risk air pollution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
V. N. Lozhkin ◽  
◽  
O. V. Lozhkina ◽  

Introduction. St. Petersburg is the cultural and sea capital of Russia. The city is characterized by environmental problems typical for the largest cities in the world. It has a technical system for instrumental online monitoring and computational forecasting of air quality. Methods. The system maintains the information process by means of computational monitoring of its current and future state. Results. The paper describes methodological approaches to the generation of instrumental information about the structure and intensity of traffic flows in the urban road network and its digital transformation into GIS maps of air pollution in terms of pollutants standard limit values excess. Conclusion. The original information technology for air quality control was introduced at the regional level in the form of an official methodology and is used in environmental management activities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leping Tu ◽  
Yan Chen

Abstract To investigate the relationship between air quality and its Baidu index, we collect the annual Baidu index of air pollution hazards, causes and responses. Grey correlation analysis, particle swarm optimization and grey multivariate convolution model are used to simulate and forecast the comprehensive air quality index. The result shows that the excessive growth of the comprehensive air quality index will lead to an increase in the corresponding Baidu index. The number of search for the causes of air quality has the closest link with the comprehensive air quality index. Strengthening the awareness of public about air pollution is conducive to the improvement of air quality. The result provides a reference for relevant departments to prevent and control air pollution.


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