Air Pollution In Chinese Cities Research Articles

When to issue the alert of air pollution in Chinese cities? Evidence on the threshold effect of heavy air pollution from Chengdu

Since 2012, the issuing of the alert for heavy air pollution has become a standard practice in major Chinese cities. An air quality index (AQI) of 200 is adopted in many cases as the triggering line of the alert system. Based on city-level time series data on hospital admissions for respiratory system disease in Chengdu, between January 1, 2016 and May 1, 2017, we assessed the relevance of AQI 200 as the trigger of the alert system. Specifically, applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, particularly its nonlinear form that accommodates the threshold effect, we searched through alternative levels of air pollution to determine whether and at what level a threshold effect of air pollution may exist. We found that while the linear form of the ARDL model showed a significant effect of air pollution similar to existing findings, the threshold form of ARDL showed that air pollution affects hospital admissions mainly when the AQI is above a certain threshold. This threshold lies in an AQI range no higher than 130, and associated with it is a sharply elevated effect on hospital admissions. Based on this finding, if an alert is triggered only when AQI is above 200, 53.2% of the hospital admissions due to air pollution will not be alerted, implying that a much lower level of AQI is needed to define a more relevant trigger of the air pollution alert system in China.

Has land resource misallocation increased air pollution in Chinese cities?

As a fundamental production factor of economic development, rational land allocation is relevant to economic development and a significant factor affecting urban air pollution. This study analyzes 284 cities in China to investigate the impact of land resource misallocation on air pollution and the underlying mechanisms. The relevant findings are fourfold. First, land resource misallocation increases urban air pollution. Second, land resource misallocation inhibits technological innovation, government technology investment, and foreign direct investment, increasing local air pollution. Third, the impact of land resource misallocation on air pollution is affected by heterogeneous conditions, including geographic region, city type, and city size. Finally, based on the air pollution caused by land resource misallocation, local governments should optimize the land supply structure and improve technological innovation and environmental investment.

Can national forest city construction mitigate air pollution in China? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment.

As air pollution in Chinese cities becomes a growing concern, measures to alleviate air pollution have attracted the attention of all sectors of society. By using the data for 283 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2016, we utilized the quasi-natural experiment of the national forest city construction (NFCC) and employed the difference-in-differences approach to examine the effects of NFCC on air pollution. The results show that the NFCC led to a 12.14% and 4.29% reduction in PM2.5 concentrations and SO2 emissions, respectively. A series of robustness tests such as instrumental variable estimates, placebo tests, and eliminating disturbing policies all supported these findings. In addition, we provided evidence that the environment benefits of the NFCC could be explained by increasing green spaces, strengthening environmental regulations, and forming green development models. Furthermore, the results from heterogeneity analysis indicate that the NFCC was more effective in smaller cities, southern cities, and western cities. Our findings are of significance to Chinese cities on the road to sustainable development and provide some insights for other developing countries and emerging markets to control air pollution.

Does vertical environmental protection pressure promote convergence of urban air pollution?

Recent research shows that the annual average concentration and winter average concentration of PM2.5 in Chinese cities have exhibited a convergence trend since 2013. However, the urban air situation in China remains far from ideal. For an authoritative government, vertical environmental protection pressure (VEPP) may be an important mechanism to motivate cities with high PM2.5 concentration levels to reduce haze pollution more rapidly compared to cities with low PM2.5 concentrations. Thus, VEPP could be considered an institutional advantage in China's vertical air pollution allocation strategy. To investigate the impact of the VEPP of Chinese local governments on the convergence of PM2.5 concentrations, this study uses the counterfactual distribution dynamics analysis framework, which combines parametric regression analysis with the nonparametric distribution dynamics technique. The results show that the Chinese government can promote the convergence of air pollution in local cities to a “favorable” level by increasing the pressure of environmental protection. However, merely increasing VEPP will not completely solve the problem of air pollution in Chinese cities during winter months. Compared with the central and western regions, the VEPP of local governments in the eastern region can promote the convergence of the average annual and winter PM2.5 concentrations.

Research on adaption to air pollution in Chinese cities: Evidence from social media-based health sensing

Air pollution seriously threats to human health. Understanding the health effects of air pollution is of great importance for developing countermeasures. However, little is known about the real-time impacts of air pollution on the human heath in a comprehensive way in developing nations, like China. To fill this research gap, the Chinese urbanites' health were sensed from more than 210.82 million Weibo (Chinese Twitter) data in 2017. The association between air pollution and the health sensing were quantified through generalized additive models, based on which the sensitivities and adaptions to air pollution in 70 China's cities were assessed. The results documented that the Weibo data can well sense urbanites' health in real time. With the different geographical characteristics and socio-economic conditions, the Chinese residents have adaption to air pollution, indicated by the spatial heterogeneity of the sensitivities to air pollution. Cities with good air quality in South China and East China were more sensitive to air pollution, while cities with worse air quality in Northwest China and North China were less sensitive. This research provides a new perspective and methodologies for health sensing and the health effect of air pollution.

Seeing is believing? The impact of air pollution on corporate social responsibility

AbstractWe study the impact of air pollution in the city in which a firm is located on its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Our hypothesis suggests that when managers are personally exposed to bad air pollution, they feel the pain and push their firms to engage in more CSR activities. Leveraging recent announcements regarding air pollution in Chinese cities, we find evidence consistent with our “seeing is believing” hypothesis. The findings are robust to alternative metrics of CSR and air pollution and after accounting for endogeneity. Additional analysis suggests that the impact of air pollution on CSR is more salient for firms with disproportionately older, female, and highly educated managers as well as when the local city government has more stable resources or when media coverage of air pollution increases.

The Hidden Hazard of Household Air Pollution in Rural China

Air pollution in Chinese cities has become a major topic of public debate and political concern. At the same time, few rural areas are subjected to measurements of ambient air quality, and policy documents and media rarely discuss the health and environmental risks caused by household air pollution (HAP) produced by the use of biomass for cooking and heating. Between 2014 and 2017 a cross-disciplinary team carried out a joint study of air quality and perceptions of air pollution in one of China’s richest provinces, Zhejiang. We found that the ambient PM2.5 concentration in the rural villages was similar to that in the urban areas. Moreover, the 24-hour mean personal exposure to particulate pollution (PM2.5) was similar for urban and rural participants in total. However, we found indications of enhanced exposure levels in certain sub-groups, such as biomass users, women, and family cooks. We found that while villagers were strongly concerned about risks of air pollution coming from nearby factories, they were largely unaware of the problem of HAP. In this article, we analyse to what extent HAP contributes to the air pollution exposure in the areas studied, and we discuss possible reasons why it has largely remained a hidden hazard. In the conclusion, we suggest that air pollution in rural areas should receive more attention from media, environmental organizations and policy makers; furthermore, that HAP in particular should be incorporated into air pollution policies to a greater extent, and its contribution to air pollution exposure in rural areas be made more publicly known.

Spatiotemporal Changes in PM2.5 and Their Relationships with Land-Use and People in Hangzhou.

Increases in the extent and level of air pollution in Chinese cities have become a major concern of the public and burden on the government. While ample literature has focused on the status, changes and causes of air pollution (particularly on PM2.5 and PM10), significantly less is known on their effects on people. In this study we used Hangzhou, China, as our testbed to assess the direct impact of PM2.5 on youth populations that are more vulnerable to pollution. We used the ground monitoring data of air quality and Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the spatiotemporal changes of PM2.5 by season in 2015. We further explored these distributions with land cover, population density and schools (kindergarten, primary school and middle school) to explore the potential impacts in seeking potential mitigation solutions. We found that the seasonal variation of PM2.5 concentration was winter > spring > autumn > summer. In Hangzhou, the percentage of land area exposed to PM2.5 > 50 µg m−3 accounted for 59.86% in winter, 56.62% in spring, 40.44% in autumn and 0% in summer, whereas these figures for PM2.5 of <35 µg m−3 were 70.01%, 5.28%, 5.17%, 4.16% in summer, winter, autumn and spring, respectively. As for land cover, forest experienced PM2.5 of 35–50 µg m−3 (i.e., lower than those of other cover types), likely due to the potential filtering and absorption function of the forests. More importantly, a quantitative index based on population-weighted exposure level (pwel) indicated that only 9.06% of the population lived in areas that met the national air quality standards. Only 1.66% (14,055) of infants and juveniles lived in areas with PM2.5 of <35 µg m−3. Considering the legacy effects of PM2.5 over the long-term, we highly recommend improving the monitoring systems for both air quality and people (i.e., their health conditions), with special attention paid to infants and juveniles.

Do people have a negative impression of government on polluted days? Evidence from Chinese Cities

Chinese governments play a key role in providing environmental public goods. Urban air quality is a significant indicator with which people evaluate the effects of governments’ environmental regulations and investments. This study aims to investigate how people's impression of government varies with air pollution in Chinese cities. Using the Baidu online search index on the specific keyword ‘corruption’ to represent public attitude toward the government, our estimations show that an increase in air pollution level yields a significant increase in online searches on this word. Such an effect is more significant on heavily polluted or severely polluted days. In further estimations, we find that people will not pay more attention to the polluters themselves on polluted days. These results are consistent with previous studies that air pollution causes people to be more depressed, selfish and sensitive to fairness. We conclude that efforts on air quality improvement will create a positive impression of government.

Multicontaminant air pollution in Chinese cities.

ObjectiveTo investigate multicontaminant air pollution in Chinese cities, to quantify the urban population affected and to explore the relationship between air pollution and urban population size.MethodsWe obtained data for 155 cities with 276 million inhabitants for 2014 from China's air quality monitoring network on concentrations of fine particulate matter measuring under 2.5 μm (PM2.5), coarse particulate matter measuring 2.5 to 10 μm (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3). Concentrations were considered as high, if they exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) guideline limits.FindingsOverall, 51% (142 million) of the study population was exposed to mean annual multicontaminant concentrations above WHO limits – east China and the megacities were worst affected. High daily levels of four-contaminant mixtures of PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and O3 and PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and NO2 occurred on up to 110 days in 2014 in many cities, mainly in Shandong and Hebei Provinces. High daily levels of PM2.5, PM10 and SO2 occurred on over 146 days in 110 cities, mainly in east and central China. High daily levels of mixtures of PM2.5 and PM10, PM2.5 and SO2, and PM10 and SO2 occurred on over 146 days in 145 cities, mainly in east China. Surprisingly, multicontaminant air pollution was less frequent in cities with populations over 10 million than in smaller cities.ConclusionMulticontaminant air pollution was common in Chinese cities. A shift from single-contaminant to multicontaminant evaluations of the health effects of air pollution is needed. China should implement protective measures during future urbanization.

Fiscal spending and air pollution in Chinese cities: Identifying composition and technique effects

Fiscal spending has both direct and indirect impact on the environment. Using city-level data in China, this paper investigates if education spending affects air pollution through human capital accumulation, known as the composition effect, and if R&D spending affects air pollution through clean-technology adoption, known as the technique effect. Contrasting theoretical predictions and previous empirical evidence, we find both effects of interest to be trivial in urban China. Composition effect appears to be slightly stronger relative to technique effect, while sub-sample analyses show some regional heterogeneities. The results remain robust when we switch between pollution measurements, examine only the regional central cities, instrument endogenous covariates, and adopt the spatial settings. We further discuss potential channel-blocking mechanisms that lead to weak estimates.

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Air Pollution in Chinese Cities

China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization has come at a staggering cost to the environment. In recent years, urban air pollution has been a serious environmental issue in Chinese cities that often hits news headlines in China and abroad. Based on the most recent data available, this paper employs two indices to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of some major air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), zone (O3), inhalable particulate matter (PM10), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), in China’s major cities and city regions. The results show that these pollutants display distinct spatial and seasonal variations. Overall, air pollution is much more serious in northern parts of the country, especially in large cities and a few major urban agglomerations, but we also find concentrations of air pollutants in urban agglomerations in southern China. Seasonally, Chinese cities suffer from air pollution especially PM2.5 pollution most in winter while summer is the cleanest season for most cities. Regional variations exist in composition of leading air pollutants and in influencing factors. Meteorological factors, such as wind speed, precipitation, temperature, air pressure, and relative humidity, often have important impacts on PM2.5 concentration, though their specific contributions vary across different cities. We argue that effective air pollution control policies should be regional in nature, but cross-border cooperation between regional and local governments is essential in order to tackle the problem of air pollution more effectively.

Real Estate Valuation and Cross-Boundary Air Pollution Externalities: Evidence from Chinese Cities

Within an open system of cities, compensating differentials theory predicts that local real estate prices will be higher in cities with higher quality non-market local public goods. In this case, more polluted cities will feature lower home prices. A city's air pollution levels depend on economic activity within the city and on cross- border pollution externalities. In this paper, we demonstrate that air pollution in Chinese cities is degraded by cross-boundary externalities. We use this exogenous source of variation in a city's air pollution to present new robust estimates of the real estate impact of local air pollution. We find that reductions in cross-boundary pollution flows have significant effects on local home prices. On average, a 10 % decrease in imported neighbor pollution is associated with a 0.76 % increase in local home prices. We also find that the marginal valuation of clean air is larger in richer Chinese cities, and hukou barrier of labor migration has been further phased out.

Is Economic Transition Harmful to China’s Urban Environment? Evidence from Industrial Air Pollution in Chinese Cities

Economic transition has posed a serious challenge to environmental protection efforts in China. This study explores the environmental effects of the triple transition process of marketisation, globalisation and decentralisation using data on industrial SO2 and soot emissions at the prefecture-city level. Panel data regression results find that marketisation and decentralisation have been harmful to the urban environment while economic globalisation has been beneficial to urban air quality. As is to be expected, state-owned enterprises have contributed to China’s environmental degradation. However, the environmental impacts of the triple processes of economic transition only occur in the coastal and central cities. The results imply that the institutional perspective provides an important angle to understand the issue of environmental deterioration in China.

Air Pollution in China, with Junfeng (Jim) Zhang

Air pollution in China, one of the world’s oldest civilizations, reflects a combination of traditional and modern-day factors. Severe air pollution in Chinese cities is the result of rapid industrialization, urbanization, and growth in vehicle use. At the same time, traditional indoor burning of solid fuels such as coal and dung presents acute, severe exposures to pollutants including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, arsenic, and mercury. In this podcast, Junfeng (Jim) Zhang tells host Ashley Ahearn about some of the factors that make air pollution a significant problem in China.

Application of disability adjusted life years in evaluating health effects due to particulate air pollution in Chinese cities

To evaluate the loss of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) due to particulate air pollution in Chinese urban residents. DALYs was applied to evaluate the health effects due to particulate air pollution in the residents of 656 Chinese cities, and the data of annual average concentrations of inhalable particle (PM(10)) in 2006 were collected from the state-owned air quality monitoring network. Particulate air pollution in Chinese urban areas in 2006, could cause (506.6 +/- 95.2) thousand premature deaths, (156.6 +/- 41.2) thousand new cases of chronic bronchitis, (12.6 +/- 5.2) million outpatient visits for internal medicine, (99.9 +/- 50.4) thousand and (72.0 +/- 8.2) thousand hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases respectively. The attributable DALYs loss in urban residents amounted up to (5.26 +/- 0.99) million person years in 2006, of which, 96.26% (506.55/526.22) were caused by premature deaths. The attributable loss of DALYs increased with more seriously PM-polluted atmosphere and larger urban population. Substantial adverse health effects due to outdoor particulate air pollution were observed in China urban areas, thus strengthening air pollution control still remains an imperative and urgent matter in public health perspective.

Environment and Health in China: Challenges and Opportunities

Environment and Health in China: Challenges and Opportunities

Valuing the Adult Health Effects of Air Pollution in Chinese Cities

China's ongoing economic growth is accompanied by a large amount of air pollution that exacts significant health and economic costs on its people. Following up on some earlier work focusing upon general mortality and child-specific health effects, this article uses a larger data set, covering more than 90 Chinese cities, along with a set of China-based epidemiological functions, to estimate some of the adult health benefits of reducing urban air pollution. Projecting future air pollution based upon current conditions, it calculates the averted mortality and morbidity effects that would result from the cleanup of particulates, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. The inclusion of nitrogen dioxide in our analysis is particularly important because it is a growing problem and has not been included in most of the more widely known studies that examine Chinese air pollution. Finally, the economic valuation of these pollution-related health effects is developed, using a number of recent, China-based valuation studies.

Protecting China's children: valuing the health impacts of reduced air pollution in Chinese cities

As China advances its overall program of economic development, many Chinese cities consistently suffer from unhealthy levels of air pollution. One of the groups most affected is children. This paper provides some quantification regarding the extent of various morbidity costs upon children in portions of urban China. Using China-based health-effects and valuation studies, the authors project, and value in dollar figures, the number of averted cases of childhood colds, bronchitis, asthma, and respiratory-related hospital visits resulting from a lowering of air pollution levels. The results indicate that these child morbidity benefits may be substantial, with a mid-range value of nearly $3.5 billion over the period 2002–2011.