Abstract
In 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Korea, and social distancing was implemented to prevent its spread. This reduced the movement of people, and changes in air quality were expected owing to reduced emissions. In the present paper, the impact of traffic volume change caused by COVID-19 on air quality in Seoul, Korea, is examined. Two regression analyses were performed using the generalized additive model (GAM), assuming a Gaussian distribution; the relationships between (1) the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in 2020–2021 and the rate of change in the traffic volume in Seoul, and (2) the traffic volume and the rate of change in the air quality in Seoul from 2016 to 2019 were analyzed. The regression results show that traffic decreased by 0.00431% per COVID-19 case; when traffic fell by 1%, the PM10, PM2.5, CO, NO2, O3, and SO2 concentrations fell by 0.48%, 0.94%, 0.39%, 0.74%, 0.16%, and −0.01%, respectively. This mechanism accounts for air quality improvements in PM10, PM2.5, CO, NO2, and O3 in Seoul during 2020–2021. From these results, the majority of the reduction in pollutant concentrations in 2020–2021 appears to be the result of a long-term declining trend rather than COVID-19.
Highlights
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China [1]
Two previous studies further excluded climate- and policy-driven impacts from the total reduction in order to estimate COVID-19driven reductions more accurately [9,19]. All of these studies were conducted without demonstrating the extent to which the reduction can be attributed to the present study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on air quality by studying the variation in traffic volume
This study identifies the relationship between traffic and air quality during 2016–2019
Summary
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China [1]. Many countries have implemented measures, such as lockdowns, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including regulations on social distancing that limit human activities [5]. These measures have had an impact on improving air quality by reducing the emissions of pollutants from human activities [6]. In the United States, during the lockdown period, NO2 and CO decreased by 49% and 37%, respectively, from 2017 to 2019. This trend increased with the increase in the local population density [8].
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