Study on Characteristics, Influencing Factors and Health Benefits of Atmospheric Multi-Pollutants in Southern Xinjiang

Abstract

In recent years, air pollution in Xinjiang, the core region of the Silk Road Economic Belt, has become increasingly severe, posing a more significant threat to human health. This paper selects the tropospheric ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde datasets under OMI remote-sensing monitoring and the PM2.5 dataset in China High Air Pollutants (CHAP) for 2018–2021. The spatial and temporal distribution of multi-pollutants, the spatial autocorrelation of Moran’s I index pollutants, and the correlation between pollutants in the warm period were studied in southern Xinjiang. Meanwhile, the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model was used for influencing factor analysis, and the BenMap-CE model was used for health benefit analysis. The results showed that the spatial distribution of ozone concentration values in southern Xinjiang shows a decreasing distribution pattern from the east–central region to the western and southern regions. The spatial distribution of formaldehyde concentration values is opposite to that of ozone. There is a clear high-value area in the ozone concentration value in April–September. The NO2 column concentration values were in the range of 0.55~1.09 × 1015 molec/cm2 in most parts of southern Xinjiang. The area of high concentration values is located in the northeast of the study area; PM2.5 concentration values are higher in the middle area of southern Xinjiang. The spatial autocorrelation characteristics showed that the spatial aggregation of O3 and NO2 displayed a slow increasing trend year by year. The spatial aggregation of HCHO and PM2.5 fluctuated slightly in four years. The overall trend of HCHO is slowly decreasing, while PM2.5 is fluctuating and increasing. In the GTWR model analysis, overall, the atmospheric pressure has a strong influence on all pollutants. The effect of NO2 on O3 was higher than that of HCHO among the four pollutants. The correlation between O3 and PM2.5 was as high as −0.7872. The BenMap-CE health benefits assessment concluded that the number of premature deaths caused by ozone pollution was much higher than that of premature deaths caused by PM2.5. The highest number of premature deaths for both pollutants occurred in Kashgar.