Local PM&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;2.5&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt; and O&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;3&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt; Ambient Air Quality Targets Setting Study in Lishui, China

Shuping Pan,Shengjun Zhang

doi:10.11648/j.ijema.20200803.12

Abstract

2021 will be the first year of China’s 14th Five-year period, and all cities have been working on making new local environmental protection plans. To further improve air quality, reduce smog, and control ozone pollution, many cities intend to set more stringent local air quality targets than the national requirements. However, how to set a reasonable and attainable air quality targets is very important because the targets have impacts not only on the welfare of local residents, but also on the local economy. This work presents a comprehensive approach to set reasonable local air quality targets. This approach has been applied to determine PM2.5 and O3 ambient concentration targets for Lishui city in its 14th Five-year Environmental Protection Plan. In this study, five years monitoring data of PM2.5 and O3 from year 2014 to 2018 in Lishui was collected and analyzed to assess the status quo and trends of its air quality. Then the concentration distribution of PM2.5 and O3 in Lishui surrounding cities and counties in Zhejiang Province were also analyzed and the possible impacts on Lishui city were evaluated. Moreover, PM2.5 and O3 air quality standards in other developed countries were reviewed and compared with Chinese current standards to assist the setting of appropriate ambient air quality targets. Based on the analysis, three-year sliding average concentration of PM2.5 and O3 are included in Lishui’s annual air quality targets for the first time, and different air quality targets are set for both the whole city and each specific area of Lishui city.

Highlights

With the rapid development of China’s economy, Chinese cities have been suffering severe air pollution in the past decades
China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced in 2018 that all of the 45 key tasks identified in the State Council's "Atmospheric Ten Articles" have been completed on schedule [2]
According to the analysis above, PM2.5 annual average concentration in the whole city in 2018 was 25μg/m3, which is 28.6% lower than the national secondary standard, and over the past five years, the concentration of PM2.5 has steadily declined year by year

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of China’s economy, Chinese cities have been suffering severe air pollution in the past decades. Spearman rank relational coefficient method was adopted to assess the air quality variation trends in the Shuping Pan and Shengjun Zhang: Local PM2.5 and O3 Ambient Air Quality Targets Setting Study in Lishui, China nine counties (cities and districts). On the other hand, compared with the international air quality standards of developed countries and regions, the current annual PM2.5 concentration in the E.U. is 25μg/m3, which indicates that the use of 25μg/m3 as the new target of PM2.5 in Lishui is advanced. This study suggests that the three-year sliding average concentration of PM2.5 should be included and used for setting the PM2.5 control targets of specific counties in Lishui’s during its 14th Five-year Environmental Plan. The PM2.5 target of three-year sliding average concentration for Longquan county, Jingning county, Yunhe county, Suichang county and Qingtian are recommended to be 23 μg/m3 and below, and the same index for Liandu district, Qingtian county, Qingyuan county and Songyang county are recommended to be 25μg/m3 and below

Comparison of O3 Standards in Different Countries

Status Qu and Interannual Variation of O3 Concentration in Lishui City

O3 Regional Impacts from Outside Lishui

Findings

Conclusion