Assessment of COVID-19 Lockdown Impact on the Air Quality in Eastern Spain: PM and BTX in Urban, Suburban and Rural Sites Exposed to Different Emissions

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, and severe measures to control it were implemented. This study investigates the impact of the lockdown on the air quality of three provinces in the Valencia region, eastern Spain, in the years 2015–2020, focusing on particulate matter (PM). A thorough statistical analysis using different approaches is conducted. Hourly patterns are also assessed. In addition, the role of meteorological parameters on PM is explored. The results indicate an overall PM10 reduction of 16.5% when comparing the lockdown in 2020 and the 2015–2019 period, while PM2.5 increased by 3.1%. As expected, urban zones experienced higher reductions than suburban zones, which experienced a PM concentration increase. The impact of the drastic drops of benzene, toluene and xylene (77.4%, 58.0% and 61.8%, respectively) on the PM values observed in urban sites is discussed. Our study provides insights on the effect of activity changes over a wide region covering a variety of air quality stations, urban, suburban and rural, and different emission types. The results of this work are a valuable reference and suggest the need for considering different factors when establishing scientific air pollution control strategies.

Can the Target Responsibility System of Air Pollution Control Achieve a Win-Win Situation of Pollution Reduction and Efficiency Enhancement?

Whether the environmental target responsibility system, a typical mandatory environmental regulation, can realize the coordinated development of environmental protection and economic growth has attracted widespread attention. With the difference-in-differences (DID) method, this paper utilizes a policy, “China’s Key Cities for Air Pollution Control to Meet the Standards within the Time Limit (APCMS),” as a quasi-natural experiment to empirically examine the target responsibility system of air pollution control’s effect on both firms’ pollutant emissions and their total factor productivity (TFP). The corresponding mechanisms are also investigated. The results show: 1) The policy not only significantly decreases firms’ pollutant emissions, but also improves their TFP. The results are robust to the exclusion of the impact of other policies in the same period, propensity score matching DID (PSM-DID) test, the adoption of alternative dependent variables, and altering sample interval; 2) The dynamic analysis shows that the policy effect on reducing pollutant emissions has increased over years after a lag of 2 years; 3) The policy reduces pollutant emissions mainly through stimulating the internal innovation rather than end-pipe treatment or production cuts. 4) Capital-intensive and private firms and firms in regions with a high degree of marketization or strong environmental law enforcement are found more responsive to the environmental target responsibility system.

Evaluation of Vegetation Configuration Models for Managing Particulate Matter along the Urban Street Environment

As a green infrastructure component, urban street vegetation is increasingly being utilized to mitigate air pollution, control microclimates, and provide aesthetic and ecological benefits. This study investigated the effect of vegetation configurations on particulate matter (PM) flows for pedestrians in road traffic environments via a computation fluid dynamics analysis based on the road width (four and eight-lane) and vegetation configuration (single-, multi-layer planting, and vegetation barrier). Airflow changes due to vegetation influenced PM inflow into the sidewalk. Vegetation between roadways and sidewalks were effective at reducing PM concentrations. Compared to single-layer planting (trees only), planting structures capable of separating sidewalk and roadway airflows, such as a multi-layer planting vegetation barrier (trees and shrubs), were more effective at minimizing PM on the sidewalk; for wider roads, a multi-layer structure was the most effective. Furthermore, along a four-lane road, the appropriate vegetation volume and width for reducing PM based on the breathing height (1.5 m) were 0.6 m3 and 0.4 m, respectively. The appropriate vegetation volume and width around eight-lane roads, were 1.2–1.4 m3 and 0.8–0.93 m, respectively. The results of this study can provide appropriate standards for street vegetation design to reduce PM concentrations along sidewalks.

Air Pollution Regulations in China: A Policy Simulation Approach with Evolutionary Game

In the institutional context of China’s political centralization and fiscal decentralization, this study explores the environmental regulations that make the central and local governments join efforts in air pollution control. Policy simulations in an evolutionary game show that the best approach is to internalize environmental costs and benefits in local governments’ objective function. The effectiveness of several policy instruments is examined individually and jointly, including administrative inspection, transfer payment, and environmental taxes. It is shown that in case environmental consequences are not internalized, appropriate application of policy instruments can incentivize goal-oriented local governments to choose the socially optimal strategy.

Penentuan Jenis Baja Scrap sebagai Bahan Baku Proses Pengecoran Logam di IKM dengan Metode Spark Testing

<p>Sampah merupakan salah satu permasalahan perkotaan yang menjadi masalah sosial, ekonomi, dan budaya. Dan hampir disemua kota di Indonesia mengalami kendala dalam mengelola sampah. Sama halnya seperti yang terjadi di wilayah Karawang, Jawa barat. Untuk itu pada penelitian ini akan dilakukan perancangan PLTSa sebagai solusi pemanfaatan sampah. Salah satu bagian dari Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Sampah (PLTSa) adalah cerobong. Yang menjadi permasalahan dari pembakaran sampah adalah asap, bau, dan panas yang dihasilkan. Pada penelitian ini penulis membuat mesin cerobong incinerator PLTSa dengan sistem air pollution control untuk mengurangi emisi gas buang hasil pembakaran sampah di incinerator. Dari hasil pengujian cerobong incinerator PLTSa dengan sistem air pollution control suhu output terbesar 35,6℃, untuk uji emisi gas buang kandungan CO pada cerobong sebelum di filter 0,64% dan kadar HC 82 ppm dan setelah menggunakan filter menjadi 0,46% dan kadar HC sebesar 68 ppm. Selanjutnya terjadi juga perubahan pada kandungan CO2, tidak menggunakan filter sebesar 9,7% dan kadar O2 sebesar 10,97%. Ketika menggunakan filter, kandungan CO2 menurun menjadi 6,3% dan kandungan O2 meningkat menjadi 14,11%.</p>

Air Pollution Control by Using Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs)

Among air pollution control strategies, air cleaning with Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) has been drawing more and more attention because of the restraints in the production of secondary pollution. AOPs have a wide range of applications such as air (odour elimination, purification), soil (remediation) and water decontamination. Ideally, the photo catalyst, titanium dioxide, is introduced in the top layer of the concrete pavement for best results. In addition, the combination of TiO2 with cement-based products offers some synergistic advantages, as the reaction products can be adsorbed at the surface and subsequently be washed away by rain. The main aim of this research work is to measure the effect of titanium dioxide as photo catalyst in purifying nitrogen oxide (NOX) and Carbon Oxides (COX) on pavement surface and outdoor environment condition. For that, TiO2 is replaced for cement at different proportions of 5%, 10% & 15% in terms of weight in the cement concrete moulds of 10 mm uniform thickness and curing is done for seven days, then same were exposed to the sunlight at Ijoor circle sampling point Rama Nagar Town for 21 days of observation. From the Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis, result it is observed that atom percentage increased maximum of 59.05 for carbon atoms for 10% proportion specimen. Then, check the amount of percentage for carbon atoms adsorbed by 10% proportion specimen at police/Kandaya Bhavan circle and Railway station circle sampling points of Rama Nagar Town for 21 days of observations and the results shows that, carbon atom percentage increased maximum of 42.99 and 58.69 for carbon atoms respectively at above sampling points. From this work, it is conclude that the Carbon atoms and Nitrogen atoms present in the atmosphere will be reduce up to some level when replace 10% of Titanium dioxide with cement in the concrete moulds of 10 mm thickness by Photo catalytic activity.

Study on the Law of Harmful Gas Release from Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker 1857) during Maintenance Period of Water Tunnel Based on K-Means Outlier Treatment

It is of great significance for air pollution control and personnel safety guarantee to master the release characteristics of harmful gases in the process of Limnoperna fortunei corruption. In view of the lack of research on the environmental pollution caused by the corruption of Limnoperna fortunei, a model experiment was designed to study the three harmful gases of NH3, H2S, and CH4 in the putrid process of Limnoperna fortunei by considering the density of Limnoperna fortunei and the time of leaving water. The results show that: (1) The recognition and processing of outliers based on wavelet decomposition and K-means algorithm can effectively reduce the standard deviation and coefficient of variation of the data set and improve the accuracy of the data set. (2) The variation of NH3 and H2S gas concentrations with the time of water separation satisfies polynomial linear regression (R2 > 99%). (3) At a density of 0.5–7.0 × 104 mussels/m2, the highest concentration of NH3 reached 47.9777–307.9454 mg/m3 with the increase in the density of Limnoperna fortunei and the extension of the time away from water, far exceeding the occupational exposure limit of NH3 of 30 mg/m3, potentially threatening human health and safety. The highest detection value of H2S concentration is 0.1909–5.0946 mg/m3, and the highest detection concentration of CH4 is 0.02%, both of which can be ignored.

The Impact of Atmospheric Pollutants on Human Health and Economic Loss Assessment

The impact of air pollution on human health is becoming increasingly severe, and economic losses are a significant impediment to economic and social development. This paper investigates the impact of air pollutants on the respiratory system and its action mechanism by using information on inpatients with respiratory diseases from two IIIA (highest) hospitals in Wuhan from 2015 to 2019, information on air pollutants, and meteorological data, as well as relevant demographic and economic data in China. This paper describes the specific conditions of air pollutant concentrations and respiratory diseases, quantifies the degree of correlation between the two, and then provides a more comprehensive assessment of the economic losses using descriptive statistical methods, the generalized additive model (GAM), cost of illness approach (COI), and scenario analysis. According to the findings, the economic losses caused by PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and CO exposure are USD 103.17 million, USD 70.54 million, USD 98.02 million, USD 40.35 million, and USD 142.38 million, for a total of USD 454.46 billion, or approximately 0.20% of Wuhan’s GDP in 2019. If the government tightens control of major air pollutants and meets the WHO-recommended criterion values, the annual evitable economic losses would be approximately USD 69.4 million or approximately 0.03% of Wuhan’s GDP in 2019. As a result, the relevant government departments must strengthen air pollution control to mitigate the impact of air pollution on population health and the associated economic losses.