scholarly journals The Impact on Urban Air Quality of the COVID-19 Lockdown Periods in 2020: The Case of Nicosia, Cyprus

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1310
Author(s):  
Giorgos Alexandrou ◽  
Petros Mouzourides ◽  
Andreas Eleftheriou ◽  
Marina K.-A. Neophytou
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Air Quality ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Downward Trend ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
Transboundary Air Pollution ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring Stations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Monitoring Stations

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the lockdown measures in 2020 on the urban air quality in Nicosia capital city, in Cyprus—an island-country in the East Mediterranean—which is often affected by transboundary dust pollution. The study focuses on three criteria pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and Particulate Matter (PM10), taken from three Air Quality Monitoring Stations; two urban stations and one reference-background. The results of this study show that the decrease in traffic, which is the main source of high concentrations of pollutants in the urban area, reached up to 66.5% during the lockdown. At the beginning of the lockdown period, it exhibited a downward trend of 29% for CO concentration, and downward trend 43% for NO2 and PM10 concentrations. The NO2 concentration exhibited an upward trend towards the end of the lockdown; with the indication that this was due to meteorological conditions relevant to the monitoring stations and the transport of NO2 concentrations from sources that cannot be tracked. PM10 concentrations exhibited a varying behaviour as observed in the trends, where the decreasing trend was followed by an increasing trend due to transboundary air pollution episodes occurring in the same period.

Assessing the impact of the New Athens airport to urban air quality with contemporary air pollution models

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1497-1511 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Moussiopoulos ◽  
P. Sahm ◽  
K. Karatzas ◽  
S. Papalexiou ◽  
A. Karagiannidis
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Air Quality ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Air Pollution Models

scholarly journals Citizen as Sensors' Commitment in Urban Public Action

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 42-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendoline l'Her ◽  
Myriam Servières ◽  
Daniel Siret
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Urban Air Quality ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Action ◽  
Quality Issue ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
The Impact

Based on a case study in Rennes, the article presents how a group of urban public actors re-uses methods and technology from citizen sciences to raise the urban air quality issue in the public debate. The project gives a group of inhabitants the opportunity to follow air quality training and proceed PM2.5µm measurements. The authors question the impact of the ongoing hybridisation between citizen science and urban public action on participants' commitment. The authors present how the use of PM2.5-sensors during 11 weeks led to a disengagement phenomenon, even if the authors observe a strong participation to workshops. These results come from an interdisciplinary methodology using observations, interviews, and data analyses.

scholarly journals Characterisation of the impact of open biomass burning on urban air quality in Brisbane, Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
pp. 230-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Congrong He ◽  
Branka Miljevic ◽  
Leigh R. Crilley ◽  
Nicholas C. Surawski ◽  
Jennifer Bartsch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Urban Air Quality ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
The Impact

The impact of meteorological parameters on urban air quality

2014 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole R. Ramsey ◽  
Petra M. Klein ◽  
Berrien Moore
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Meteorological Parameters ◽  
Urban Air Quality ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals A comparison of two interaction matrix coding techniques used in a GIS-based tool for air quality assessment

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-314 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Numerical Model ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Pollutant Dispersion ◽  
Urban Air Quality ◽  
Interaction Matrix ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
Weighting Factors ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Impact

The paper describes the development of a fast and easy-to-use qualitative tool for preliminary assessments of urban air quality related to road traffic. The tool is particularly aimed at the ability and budget of local government. It uses a novel interaction matrix-type methodology combined with mapping overlay, performed via a GIS. More specifically, the interaction matrix provides the weighting factors, which show the impact of each variable involved in a system on the target variable, air quality, as well as on the system as a whole. These weighting factors are used in the GIS to produce vulnerability maps. The maps visualise vulnerability to air pollution due to the combined effect of a number of interacting factors, and thus indicate areas susceptible to poor air quality. This results in a considerable reduction in computing time and complexity compared to the use of a sophisticated numerical model, as the user of the GIS tool only needs to perform mapping overlays in the GIS (using the previously derived weighting factors). The particular aim of this study was to compare two different methods for quantifying the interactions between variables in the matrix. The first method used constant coefficients, whose values are based on parametric studies performed using an advanced dispersion model or on good engineering judgement. The second method used a more sophisticated and versatile quantification of the interactions between variables, via analytical or semi-empirical relationships. In the latter method, the matrix was formulated computationally, so that the interaction weightings for different conditions can be obtained automatically. The technique was applied to the case study of an urban area with a high traffic throughput, in the UK. Two different interaction matrices were constructed for urban air quality linked to road traffic, based on the above methods. The GIS results based on both matrix methodologies were compared to the results of a more intensive dispersion numerical model in terms of pollutant dispersion patterns and hot spots. Both sets of results were shown to compare favourably with those of the numerical model. The results based on the more sophisticated matrix coding were found to be in closer agreement with those of the numerical model.

scholarly journals Urban aerosol chemistry at a land–water transition site during summer – Part 1: Impact of agricultural and industrial ammonia emissions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 13051-13065
Author(s):  
Nicholas Balasus ◽  
Michael A. Battaglia Jr. ◽  
Katherine Ball ◽  
Vanessa Caicedo ◽  
Ruben Delgado ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Chesapeake Bay ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Urban Air Quality ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Aerosol Chemistry ◽  
Industrial Sources ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Land Water

Abstract. This study characterizes the impact of the Chesapeake Bay and associated meteorological phenomena on aerosol chemistry during the second Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS-2) field campaign, which took place from 4 June to 5 July 2018. Measurements of inorganic PM2.5 composition, gas-phase ammonia (NH3), and an array of meteorological parameters were undertaken at Hart-Miller Island (HMI), a land–water transition site just east of downtown Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay. The observations at HMI were characterized by abnormally high NH3 concentrations (maximum of 19.3 µg m−3, average of 3.83 µg m−3), which were more than a factor of 3 higher than NH3 levels measured at the closest atmospheric Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMoN) site (approximately 45 km away). While sulfate concentrations at HMI agreed quite well with those measured at a regulatory monitoring station 45 km away, aerosol ammonium and nitrate concentrations were significantly higher, due to the ammonia-rich conditions that resulted from the elevated NH3. The high NH3 concentrations were largely due to regional agricultural emissions, including dairy farms in southeastern Pennsylvania and poultry operations in the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware–Maryland–Virginia). Reduced NH3 deposition during transport over the Chesapeake Bay likely contributed to enhanced concentrations at HMI compared to the more inland AMoN site. Several peak NH3 events were recorded, including the maximum NH3 observed during OWLETS-2, that appear to originate from a cluster of industrial sources near downtown Baltimore. Such events were all associated with nighttime emissions and advection to HMI under low wind speeds (< 1 m s−1) and stable atmospheric conditions. Our results demonstrate the importance of industrial sources, including several that are not represented in the emissions inventory, on urban air quality. Together with our companion paper, which examines aerosol liquid water and pH during OWLETS-2, we highlight unique processes affecting urban air quality of coastal cities that are distinct from continental locations.

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