Influence of Road Patterns on PM2.5 Concentrations and the Available Solutions: The Case of Beijing City, China

Fang Wang,Yaoyao Peng,Chunyan Jiang

doi:10.3390/su9020217

Abstract

With the increase in urbanization and energy consumption, PM2.5 has become a major pollutant. This paper investigates the impact of road patterns on PM2.5 pollution in Beijing, focusing on two questions: Do road patterns significantly affect PM2.5 concentrations? How do road patterns affect PM2.5 concentrations? A land-use regression model (LUR model) is used to quantify the associations between PM2.5 concentrations, and road patterns, land-use patterns, and population density. Then, in the condition of excluding other factors closely correlated to PM2.5 concentrations, based on the results of the regression model, further research is conducted to explore the relationship between PM2.5 concentrations and the types, densities, and layouts of road networks, through the controlling variables method. The results are as follows: (1) the regression coefficient of road patterns is significantly higher than the water area, population density, and transport facilities, indicating that road patterns have an obvious influence on PM2.5 concentrations; (2) under the same traffic carrying capacity, the layout of “a tight network of streets and small blocks” is superior to that of “a sparse network of streets and big blocks”; (3) the grade proportion of urban roads impacts the road patterns’ rationality, and a high percentage of branch roads and secondary roads could decrease PM2.5 concentrations. These findings could provide a reference for the improvement of the traffic structure and air quality of Beijing.

Highlights

With rapid urbanization, high population density and heavy traffic exacerbate the air pollution arising from a traditional extensive economy
The objective of this paper is to assess the effect of road networks on PM2.5 pollution, which mainly focuses on two questions: Do road patterns significantly affect PM2.5 concentrations? How do road patterns affect PM2.5 concentrations? During the study, PM2.5 concentrations were the dependent variable, and road patterns, land-use, and population density were the independent variables, through which a land-use regression model (LUR model) was obtained
With the fast development of motorized transport, the air pollution caused by traffic has been a major source of pollutants in modern cities

Summary

Introduction

High population density and heavy traffic exacerbate the air pollution arising from a traditional extensive economy. Li et al (2012) [9] noted that the annual concentration of PM2.5 in a green space was lower than that in bare land Among these factors, motor vehicles have become important sources of fine particulate pollution, contributing between 25% and 35% of direct PM2.5 emissions [10,11], which are the dominant source of air pollution in most urban cities [12,13]. The previous research on vehicle emissions of particulates has mainly focused on their black carbon or particle number concentrations, especially for diesel vehicles, which require high equipment and technology [15,16]. Due to the constraints of technology and difficulties in data acquisition to capture the concentrations of black carbon or other particulates, our research uses PM2.5 as the indicator for vehicle particle emissions

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Conclusion