Quantifying the air quality impact of ship emissions in China's Bohai Bay

Abstract

Bohai Bay, as a significant economic bay area in China, has experienced considerable ecological consequences during its rapid economic development. One of the major environmental challenges is the emission of air pollutants from ships, which has had a severe impact on regional air quality and the health of residents. To assess the influence of pollutants on the air quality around the Bohai Bay area, a Weather Research and Forecasting and Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model was established using a 9 km × 9 km high-resolution ship emission gridded inventory from 2018. The WRF-CMAQ model was employed to compare two scenarios: vessel emissions and non-vessel emissions, in order to evaluate the impact of ship emissions. By analyzing the pollutant concentrations in Bohai Bay and the degree of change in pollutant concentration in six cities under these two scenarios, significant differences were observed. Furthermore, a comparison of the hourly concentration contributions of ship emissions between port cities and inland cities within the same region revealed that inland cities were less affected by ship emissions. The main contributing factors to this disparity were identified as wind direction and wind speed.