Abstract
Wuhan was locked down from 23 January to 8 April 2020 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Both public and private transportation in Wuhan and its neighboring cities in Hubei Province were suspended or restricted, and the manufacturing industry was partially shut down. This study collected and investigated ground monitoring data to prove that the lockdowns of the cities had significant influences on the air quality in Wuhan. The WRF-CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting-Community Multiscale Air Quality) model was used to evaluate the emission reduction from transportation and industry sectors and associated air quality impact. The results indicate that the reduction in traffic emission was nearly 100% immediately after the lockdown between 23 January and 8 February and that the industrial emission tended to decrease by about 50% during the same period. The industrial emission further deceased after 9 February. Emission reduction from transportation and that from industry was not simultaneous. The results imply that the shutdown of industry contributed significantly more to the pollutant reduction than the restricted transportation.
Highlights
China has experienced severe and persistent air pollution in the past decade as a side effect of rapid economic development
Though the emission reduction corresponded to the transportation restriction restriction and and the the reduction reduction in in industrial industrial activities, activities, which which was was reported reported by by transportation others as well [59], none of the four cases in our study reflected accurately the real emission reductions during the lockdown in Wuhan. We used both measurements and model simulations to investigate the possible reason for the air quality improvement as a result of the lockdown of Wuhan and neighboring cities in Hubei Province after the outbreak of COVID-19
The emissions from transportation and industry sectors were taken into consideration since the transportation in Hubei Province and some industrial production activities were suspended after 23 January to prevent the spread of virus
Summary
China has experienced severe and persistent air pollution in the past decade as a side effect of rapid economic development. The urbanization and industrialization in China consume a large amount of energy and cause air pollution problems in the cities [1,2]. The burning of fossil fuel in the power sector pollutes the air heavily by SO2 , NOx , and PM2.5 , contributing roughly 33%, 33%, and 6% of the country’s total emissions of SO2 , NOx , and PM2.5 , respectively [6,7]. To control the air pollution, Chinese authorities have already spent tremendous efforts and issued policies to limit the emissions from the power, industry, and transportation sectors [12], but it is hard to compensate for the effects of the economic growth and increasing usage of fossil fuel
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