scholarly journals COVID-19 and Air Pollution: Measuring Pandemic Impact to Air Quality in Five European Countries

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 290
Author(s):  
Akvilė Feiferytė Skirienė ◽  
Žaneta Stasiškienė

The rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected the economy, trade, transport, health care, social services, and other sectors. To control the rapid dispersion of the virus, most countries imposed national lockdowns and social distancing policies. This led to reduced industrial, commercial, and human activities, followed by lower air pollution emissions, which caused air quality improvement. Air pollution monitoring data from the European Environment Agency (EEA) datasets were used to investigate how lockdown policies affected air quality changes in the period before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, comparing to the same periods in 2018 and 2019, along with an assessment of the Index of Production variation impact to air pollution changes during the pandemic in 2020. Analysis results show that industrial and mobility activities were lower in the period of the lockdown along with the reduced selected pollutant NO2, PM2.5, PM10 emissions by approximately 20–40% in 2020.

Author(s):  
G. M. Chernogaeva ◽  
E. A. Zhadanovskaya ◽  
Yu. A. Malevanov

The paper analyzes the data from Roshydromet air pollution monitoring network in cities of the Moscow region, as well as the official Rosstat data on air pollution emissions from stationary sources and vehicles in Moscow and Moscow region over a 10-year period (since 2007), along with data from Roshydromet soil contamination monitoring network by heavy metals along federal routes in Moscow region for the period 2009–2016. Analysis showed that despite the closure of some industrial plants or moving some of them from Moscow to the Moscow region, the air quality in Moscow remained virtually unchanged for the last 10 years. The high traffic load and the density of the road network have led to the fact that most of the Moscow region has a double excess over the background values of pollutants, especially by heavy metals. The paper also presents trends and spatial variability of air quality in the region under study.


Author(s):  
Aneri A. Desai

In Indian metropolitan cities, the extensive growth of the motor vehicles has resulted in the deterioration of environmental quality and human health. The concentrations of pollutants at major traffic areas are exceeding the permissible limits. Public are facing severe respiratory diseases and other deadly cardio-vascular diseases In India. Immediate needs for vehicular air pollution monitoring and control strategies for urban cities are necessary. Vehicular emission is the main source of deteriorating the ambient air quality of major Indian cities due to rapid urbanization. Total vehicular population is increased to 15 Lacks as per recorded data of Regional Transport Organization (RTO) till 2014-2015. This study is focused on the assessment of major air pollution parameters responsible for the air pollution due to vehicular emission. The major air pollutants responsible for air pollution due to vehicular emissions are PM10, PM2.5, Sox, Nox, HC, CO2 and CO and Other meterological parameters like Ambient temperature, Humidity, Wind direction and Wind Speed. Sampling and analysis of parameters is carried out according to National Ambient Air Quality Standards Guidelines (NAAQS) (2009) and IS 5128.


2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 2105-2114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangde Xu ◽  
Lian Xie ◽  
Xinghong Cheng ◽  
Jianming Xu ◽  
Xiuji Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract A major challenge for air quality forecasters is to reduce the uncertainty of air pollution emission inventory. Error in the emission data is a primary source of error in air quality forecasts, much like the effect of error in the initial conditions on the accuracy of weather forecasting. Data assimilation has been widely used to improve weather forecasting by correcting the initial conditions with weather observations. In a similar way, observed concentrations of air pollutants can be used to correct the errors in the emission data. In this study, a new method is developed for estimating air pollution emissions based on a Newtonian relaxation and nudging technique. Case studies for the period of 1–25 August 2006 in 47 cities in China indicate that the nudging technique resulted in improved estimations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions in the majority of these cities. Predictions of SO2 and NO2 concentrations in January, April, August, and October using the emission estimations derived from the nudging technique showed remarkable improvements over those based on the original emission data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios Papastergios ◽  
Paraskevi Tzoumaka ◽  
Apostolos Kelessis

Air pollution has been one of the first environmental problems to be addressed by the EU and for this reason clean air is considered essential to good health. Information availability and understanding of the air quality issue is essential part of tackling it with efficiency. Having the latter in mind, the Municipality of Thessaloniki has considered relative environmental actions as an important priority and made significant efforts to include them in its short-term and long-term, already developed, strategies. Through these strategies the Municipality became partner in three important EU funded projects that are dealing with indoor and outdoor air pollution monitoring actions, namely CUTLER, AIRTHINGS, and LIFE SMART IN'AIR. The successful implementation of these projects will add to the knowledge of indoor and outdoor air quality in the City of Thessaloniki, whereas, at the same time, will improve the resilience of the city and the well being of its citizens.


Author(s):  
Manoj Gurung

Abstract: Degradation of air quality, like climate change and global warming, has become an all-encompassing existential hazard to humanity and natural life. Exposure to severely polluted air on a regular basis causes pulmonary disorders and contributes to severe allergies and asthma. According to studies, more than 10 million people die each year as a result of irregularities produced directly or indirectly by air pollution. The work of Lelieveld et al. [1] sheds light on the gravity of the problem. It is estimated that by 2050, the worldwide premature mortality from air pollution will exceed 6.6 million fatalities per year (358000 from ozone, the rest from PM 2.5) [1]. As a result, we decided to focus our study on improving indoor air quality. Despite the fact that there are numerous indoor air purifiers on the market, their cost belies their effectiveness, and the effective ones are far too expensive for working-class people to afford [2]. In order to address this issue, we created an automated Internet of Things (IoT) based air filtration system that uses an automated air purifier which is triggered when air quality falls below WHO criteria. Our initiative intends to improve indoor air quality by utilizing the most cost-effective and efficient modules available. Keywords: Indoor Air Pollution, Air Purifier, IAQ, Sharp Dust Sensor GP2Y1010AU0F, IoT, Particulate Matter (PM), HEPA Filter


Humankind, moving to a period centered upon improvement has overlooked the significance of supportability and has been the real guilty party behind the rising Pollution levels in the world's air among all other living life forms. The Pollution levels at certain spots have come to such high degrees that they have begun hurting our very own It will being. An IoT based Air Pollution observing framework incorporates a MQ Series sensor interfaced to a Node MCU outfitted with an ESP8266 WLAN connector to send the sensor perusing to a Thing Speak cloud. Further extent of this work incorporates an appropriate AI model to foresee the air Pollution level and an anticipating model, which is fundamentally a subset of prescient displaying. As age of poisonous gases from ventures, vehicles and different sources is immensely expanding step by step, it winds up hard to control the dangerous gases from dirtying the unadulterated air. In this paper a practical air Pollution observing framework is proposed. This framework can be utilized for observing Pollutions in demeanor of specific territory and to discover the air peculiarity or property examination. The obligated framework will concentrate on the checking of air poisons concentrate with the assistance of mix of Internet of things with wireless sensor systems. The investigation of air quality should be possible by figuring air quality index (AQI)


2020 ◽  
Vol 211 ◽  
pp. 01005
Author(s):  
Nguyen Tan Danh ◽  
Le Minh Quang

In addition to the hot weather with an extremely high UV index, the air quality in some big cities of Vietnam also alarming. Air pollution will have a large impact on urban development and, above all, people’s health. The results of air pollution monitoring over the past time in Ho Chi Minh City in some locations show that dust pollution and fine dust concentration (PM2.5) in the air of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City are still high and at an alarming level. This is a problem of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and a matter of concern in other countries, especially Asian countries. A few years ago, this issue was mentioned, but now it still causes frustration. The article discusses the factors that affect the air quality, and for that reason the people of the city in particular and this study must take this issue seriously and need to have effective measures.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid RAHAL ◽  
Noureddine BENABADJI ◽  
Mohamed BENCHERIF ◽  
Mohamed Menaouer BENCHERIF

Abstract In Algeria, air pollution is classified as a major risk by the law. However, this risk is underestimated because there is no operational network for measuring air quality on a continuous basis.Despite the heavy investments made to equip several cities with these measurement systems, they are out of order due to a lack of continuous financial support.The alternative to the absence of these air pollution measurement networks can come from the recent development of electrochemical sensor technologies for air quality monitoring which arouses a certain interest because of their miniaturization, low energy consumption and low cost.We developed a low-cost outdoor carbon monoxide analyzer called APOMOS (Air pollution Monitoring System) based on electrochemical sensor managed by microcontroller. An application developed with the Python language makes it possible to manage process and analyze the collected data.In order to validate the APOMOS system, the recorded measurements are compared with measurements taken by a conventional analyzer.Comparison of the measurements resulting from conventional analyzer and those resulting from the APOMOS system gives a coefficient of determination of 98.39 %.Two versions of this system have been designed. A fixed version and another embedded, equipped with a GPS sensor. These 2 variants were used in the city of Oran in Algeria to measure the concentration of carbon monoxide continuously.The targeted pollutant is carbon monoxide. However, the design of the APOMOS system allows its evolution in an easy way in order to integrate other sensors concerning the various atmospheric pollutants.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1215
Author(s):  
Grazia Fattoruso ◽  
Martina Nocerino ◽  
Domenico Toscano ◽  
Luigi Pariota ◽  
Giampiero Sorrentino ◽  
...  

Urban air pollution continues to represent a primary concern for human health, despite significant efforts by public authorities for mitigating its effects. Regulatory monitoring networks are essential tools for air pollution monitoring. However, they are sparse networks, unable to capture the spatial variability of the air pollutants. For addressing this issue, networks of low cost stations are deployed, supplementing the regulatory stations. Regarding this application, an important question is where these stations are installed The objective of this study was to generate a site suitability map for the development of a network of low cost multi-sensor stations across a city for a spatially dense urban air quality monitoring. To do that, a site suitability analysis was developed based on two geographical variables properly selected for representing the impact of urban pollutant sources and urban form on the pollutant concentrations. By processing information about emissions patterns and street canyon effects, we were able to identify air quality hotspot areas supposed to show high spatial variability. Low cost monitoring stations, there located, are able to provide that informative content, which is lacking for both regulatory monitoring networks and predictive modelling for high resolution air quality mapping.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 03007
Author(s):  
György KolumbÁn-Antal ◽  
Vladko Lasak ◽  
Razvan Bogdan ◽  
Bogdan Groza

Counteracting the effects of air quality degradation is one of the main challenges in large cities today. To achieve such a goal, the first step is to control the emissions of various pollutant gases which in turn requires their concentrations to be measured such that proper methods can be applied. In this work we present a low cost urban air pollution monitoring system which we developed as proof-of-concept in Timisoara, Romania. The proposed solution is a Vehicular Sensor Network (VSN), with affordable midclass sensor nodes being installed on moving vehicles, ideally on the public transportation busses. The system measures temperature, humidity, the concentration of CO2 and dust, along with Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). The aim of collecting weather data is to build correlations between air pollution levels and different weather conditions. In addition to technical constraints for measuring air quality, one of the challenges that we address is to implement secure transmissions between the devices. This raises several difficulties on microcontrollers that we use due to their low memory and computational resources. To answer both privacy and security issues, the proposed data transmission protocol of the measuring system, builds upon a modified version of the Station to Station (STS) protocol which allows secure tunnelling in an anonymous manner.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document