Regional Air Pollution Research Articles

Towards achieving the sustainable development goal of industry: How does industrial agglomeration affect air pollution?

Industrial agglomeration not only brings economic prosperity, but also raises concerns about its environmental impact. How to balance industrial agglomeration and inclusive economic growth is a major challenge for today's social development. On the foundation of the balanced panel data of 164 cities in China from 2003 to 2013, our study employs the dynamic spatial Dubin model to empirically analyze the possible spatial effects between industrial agglomeration and air pollution at China's urban level, and detects the potential transmission mechanism through the lens of environmental regulation, technological progress and industrial structure upgrading. The findings denote that: (1) An inverted “N" type relationship exists between industrial agglomeration and air pollution, namely, with the deepening of industrial agglomeration, the air pollution of the city will first decline, then rise, and finally recover the trend of decline. (2) The influence of local industrial agglomeration on neighbor air pollution also presents an inverted “N" shape, denoting that local industrial agglomeration also has an alleviating influence on air pollution in adjacent regions in the long run. (3) Industrial agglomeration can reduce the air pollution level in urban agglomeration by affecting environmental regulation, technological progress and industrial structure upgrading. These results provide a detailed reference for promoting industrial development and air pollution control.

Emissions of Air Pollution in Industrial and Rural Region in Poland and Health Impacts

Emissions of Air Pollution in Industrial and Rural Region in Poland and Health Impacts

Evolutionary game analysis of air pollution co-investment in emission reductions by steel enterprises under carbon quota trading mechanism.

Air pollution has become the focus of social attention, and the development of the steel industry has caused serious pollution problems. Currently, air pollution control is inefficient, and the Chinese government encourages steel enterprises to jointly control regional air pollution. An evolutionary game model regarding the inter-steel enterprises under the government subsidy mechanism was developed to determine the optimal synergistic air pollution management strategy between large steel enterprises and medium and small-sized steel enterprises under the government subsidy policy. Subsequently, a carbon quota trading mechanism is introduced to the base model to reduce the possibility of enterprises choosing not to carry out air pollution control investment strategies and mutual free-riding behavior among enterprises. Results suggest that government subsidies and input-output ratios are critical for enterprises to collaborate on air pollution control investments. Threshold of the input-output ratios can be lowered by reducing the benefits of free-riding behavior and input costs and increasing the benefits of government subsidies and common products. Enhancing the input-output ratios, benefits of common products, input costs, government subsidies, and benefits of free-riding behavior can lead enterprises to converge to the best choice. Furthermore, carbon quota trading mechanism can take effect only when carbon quotas sold by both enterprises are greater than the threshold value of the carbon quotas given by the government. At this time, enterprises obtain carbon trading revenue and government subsidies much more than input costs, and they invest in air pollution with no free-riding behavior. Moreover, increasing the price of carbon trading helps in the promotion of the improvement of carbon trading profits and the tendency to choose the best strategy for both enterprises.

몽골 울란바토르 시 대기오염 위기관리 방안

The purpose of this study is to analyze air pollution in Ulaanbaatar and its causes, and to suggest a crisis management plan for air pollution improvement. Crisis management measures to improve air pollution in the ger region are as follows. First, it is necessary to develop the fuel for heating used in the ger region of Ulaanbaatar and the fuel used in thermal power plants into macektan and anthracite. Compressed fuel emits less soot and burns longer, resulting in lower fuel consumption. Second, it is desirable to introduce a method of replacing the heating system of households in the ger region with the Korean-style ‘floor heating’ method. A household living in a ger consumes 400,000 MNT of coal per year, and installing the ger heating using the Korean-style floor heating method not only saves household costs twice as much, but also protects the economy and health. Third, it is possible to reduce pollutants through fuel improvement in automobiles in Ulaanbaatar City. 80% of vehicles in Ulaanbaatar use benzene, because benzene causes air pollutants such as NO2, CO, CO2, CFC, and lead.

Payments for environmental services strategy for transboundary air pollution: A stochastic differential game perspective

Air pollution has become a global threat to societal development. The main challenges of transboundary air pollution control include two perspectives: uneven socioeconomic development of regions and the diffusion of air pollution. This paper proposes an PES strategy to alleviate transboundary air pollution by coordinating regional economic interests and environmental preferences within the joint prevention and control of air pollution region. To make the model design more realistic, we introduce the stochastic differential game model to characterize the diffusion and uncertainty of air pollution. The optimal feedback Nash equilibrium is derived in three PES scenarios (no PES, dynamic PES, and fixed-fee PES) by using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Numerical simulations and sensitivity analysis are implemented to compare the optimal strategies under the three PES scenarios. The dynamic PES strategy is shown to outperform the no PES strategy and the fixed-fee PES strategy by encouraging the backward region to cut more emissions. Besides, the confidence interval theory is used to estimate the variation range of air pollution stocks, which provides a powerful diagnostic tool for policy-makers.

Why do extreme particulate pollution events occur in low-emission Yunnan Province, China?

Yunnan Province in southwest China has low anthropogenic emissions, but in recent years it encountered unprecedented serious particulate pollution. To clarify the causes of pollution in this province, this study comprehensively analyzed the spatial-temporal distribution of near-surface PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) from 2017 to 2021, which was retrieved from Himawari-8 aerosol optical depth. The results show that, particulate pollution mainly occurred in the dry season (November to April), especially in March and April. And the heavily polluted areas mainly distributed in the southwest of the province, where there is small population and high forest cover. Dust, polluted dust, and elevated smoke were the most spatio-temporally variable aerosols, which should be attributed to biomass combustion and polluted air mass transportation from neighboring countries. The comparisons between effects of anthropogenic emissions, stable weather and pollutant transportation on local air quality indicate that exogenous pollutants should be mainly responsible for the concentrated outbreak of particulate pollution in Yunnan Province during the second half of the dry season. Besides, the stable weather conditions would further aggravate the deterioration of air quality. This study provides important reference for further strengthening joint prevention and control of regional air pollution.

The nutrition and life-style of mothers from industrial and nonindustrial regions related to their economic situation

Aim: The study analyzed the nutrition and lifestyle of mothers related to air pollution in industrial and non-industrial regions, taking into account the economic situation of households. Methods: The respondents were a deliberate sample of mothers from two regions of the Czech Republic – districts of Ceske Budejovice (CB, N=376) and Karvina (KA, N=449). Selected districts were chosen for their difference in the air pollution, with CB being one of the least polluted and KA one of the most polluted regions/districts in the Czech Republic. Data were collected in maternity hospitals in the years 2019 and 2020. Results: The majority of respondents (98.5%) described their economic situation at least as average. They also consumed daily at least one hot meal. In Karvina mothers more often eat fish, poultry, legumes and also sweet meals and fried food than in Ceske Budejovice, where are more often consumed dairy products. Information about health risk are important for change of their habits. Conclusion: Most mothers in our study subjectively evaluated their economic situation as moderately good in both regions. Better economic situation was correlated with healthy nutrition, including higher consumption of fruits and vegetables, wholegrain bread, beef and fish and lower consumption of sweet drinks and produced meats. Notably the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the industrial region has risen in comparison with previous data, which is an improvement promising a better starting position for the new generation.

The Impact of Ecological Checks on Urban Areas Towards Crime Rates in Indonesia

This study was conducted to analyze the impact of ecological checks on urban areas towards crime rates. The research was run at the Laboratory of Earth Information at University of Lampung, while the data acquisition was carried out at Subdit IV Tipidter Ditreskrimsus POLDA Lampung on October 2014 - December 2014. This study applied a modeling approach using secondary data from 36 districts/ cities in Indonesia. The model used in this study was multiple linear regression using multiple dummy variables. The response variables used were the level of criminality such as murder, rape, persecution, kidnapping, destruction, theft, fraud, narcotics, and victims of demonstration anarchism. The explanatory variables include the level of regional urbanism and air pollution (air pollution including CO, HC, and CO2) as the main variables which were equipped with accompaniment variables (recreation areas, places of worship and religious leaders). Based on the results of linear regression using Minitab V.16 software at a confidence interval of 5% and 10%, it is showed that the degree of regional urbanism is one of the variables that can cause an increase in criminal rates. Meanwhile, environmental polluting variables (CO, HC, and CO2) have no real effect.

A Stackelberg game model with tax for regional air pollution control

The command-and-control regulation is likely inefficient and costly. This study investigates a regional pollution control scheme with tax (RPCST) under which the central government sets the tax rate under a given pollutant reduction quota and local governments determine their pollution removal rates based on the central government’s policy. First, a one-leader-multi-follower (OLMF) Stackelberg game model is formulated, in which the central government is the leader and the local governments are the followers. Then, a procedure based on bilevel programming and relaxation method is applied to solve the OLMF model. Finally, a case study analyzing the SO2 reduction of the Yangtze River Delta in China is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the RPCST. The results show that RPCST works better than the current command-and-control scheme. Our analysis provides a guideline for governments to design optimal tax schemes to effectively solve the regional air pollution crisis.

Air pollution prevention and control action plan substantially reduced PM2.5 concentration in China

As part of China's committed efforts to alleviate and control air pollution in key regions, the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) was implemented in 2013 and a series of regulatory measures, including a mandatory and strengthened enterprise air pollutant emission standard was rolled out. However, the present literature has focused limited attention to the actual effects of APPCAP on PM2.5 pollution treatment. Using panel data from 271 prefecture-level cities covering 2008 and 2018, this paper used the difference-in-differences (DID) and propensity score matching difference-in-differences (PSM DID) to explore for the first time the policy effect on air quality. The superposition effect caused by the establishment of a carbon emission trading scheme is empirically considered by using the difference-in-difference-in- differences (DDD) strategy. Several important findings are derived: 1) The APPCAP exerts significant negative effects on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration and SO2 emissions in the pilot areas. 2) Results of the DDD model show that China's APPCAP still exert significant negative effects on PM2.5 concentration and SO2 emissions in the pilot areas of the carbon emission trading scheme. 3) The heterogeneity analysis results indicate that the effects of China's APPCAP on air pollution in the key urban agglomerations are consistent and significantly negative under different conditions.

Influential environmental drivers on air pollution in dust-sensitive regions of Iran

Influential environmental drivers on air pollution in dust-sensitive regions of Iran

The impact of China's high-speed rail investment on regional economy and air pollution emissions

The high-speed rail (HSR) network in China has experienced rapid development since the 2000s. In 2016, the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued a revised version of the “Mid- and Long-term Railway Network Plan”, detailing the expansion of the railway network and construction of an HSR system. In the future, the HSR construction efforts in China will further increase, which is considered to impact regional development and air pollutant emissions. Therefore, in this paper, we apply a transportation network-multiregional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to estimate the dynamic effects of HSR projects on economic growth, regional disparities, and air pollutant emissions in China. The results indicate that HSR system improvement could generate a positive economic impact but could also increase emissions. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth per unit investment cost stimulated by HSR investment is found to be the largest in eastern China but the smallest in the northwest regions. Conversely, HSR investment in Northwest China contributes to a substantial reduction in regional disparities in terms of the GDP per capita. In regard to air pollution emissions, HSR construction in South-Central China results in the largest increase in CO2 and NOX emissions, while for CO, SO2, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions, the largest increase occurs due to HSR construction in Northwest China. At the regional level, the provinces with large changes in accessibility also experience large changes in their air pollutant emissions.

Climatic–Environmental Effects of Aerosols and Their Sensitivity to Aerosol Mixing States in East Asia in Winter

To establish the direct climatic and environmental effect of anthropogenic aerosols in East Asia in winter under external, internal, and partial internal mixing (EM, IM and PIM) states, a well-developed regional climate–chemical model RegCCMS is used by carrying out sensitive numerical simulations. Different aerosol mixing states yield different aerosol optical and radiative properties. The regional averaged EM aerosol single scattering albedo is approximately 1.4 times that of IM. The average aerosol effective radiative forcing in the atmosphere ranges from −0.35 to +1.40 W/m2 with increasing internal mixed aerosols. Due to the absorption of black carbon aerosol, lower air temperatures are increased, which likely weakens the EAWM circulations and makes the atmospheric boundary more stable. Consequently, substantial accumulations of aerosols further appear in most regions of China. This type of interaction will be intensified when more aerosols are internally mixed. Overall, the aerosol mixing states may be important for regional air pollution and climate change assessments. The different aerosol mixing states in East Asia in winter will result in a variation from 0.04 to 0.11 K for the averaged lower air temperature anomaly and from approximately 0.45 to 2.98 μg/m3 for the aerosol loading anomaly, respectively, due to the different mixing aerosols.

Analysis of Synergistic Effects of Cold Source and East Asian Winter Wind on Air Pollution in Typical Regions of China in Winter

This paper collects and analyzes the 1954–2017 monthly average reanalysis data from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR), the 1954–2017 haze days observation data from the National Meteorological Information Center/China Meteorological Administration (NMIC/CMA) and the PM2.5 daily average mass concentration data in 2013–2017 from the China Air Quality Online Monitoring Platform. The atmospheric apparent heat source Q1 (negative Q1 means cold source in winter) over the Tibetan Plateau in December of 1954–2017 is estimated based on thermodynamic equations, and the East Asian winter monsoon index (EAWMI) is calculated. In addition, the discrepancies of the air quality among China’s five typical regions (Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, Fen-Wei Plain, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Sichuan-Chongqing regions) under the joint influence of the Q1 and EAWMI are studied. Results show that when it is a strong cold source year, abnormal downdrafts and “temperature inversion covers” occur in areas far from the high terrain, resulting in increased pollution, while the opposite is true in weak cold source years. In strong EAWMI years, there is an abnormal northerly sinking cold flow in the lower layers of mid-high latitudes, which increases the pollution in the area south of 30° N, and the opposite is true in weak EAWMI years. Affected by the combined activities of the Q1 and the EAWMI, the meteorological conditions of the five typical regions are different, and thus present different air pollution characteristics.

Time Series Analysis and Forecasting of Air Pollutants Based on Prophet Forecasting Model in Jiangsu Province, China

Due to recent developments in the global economy, transportation, and industrialization, air pollution is one of main environmental issues in the 21st century. The current study aimed to predict both short-term and long-term air pollution in Jiangsu Province, China, based on the Prophet forecasting model (PFM). We collected data from 72 air quality monitoring stations to forecast six air pollutants: PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3. To determine the accuracy of the model and to compare its results with predicted and actual values, we used the correlation coefficient (R), mean squared error (MSE), root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE). The results show that PFM predicted PM10 and PM2.5 with R values of 0.40 and 0.52, RMSE values of 16.37 and 12.07 μg/m3, and MAE values of 11.74 and 8.22 μg/m3, respectively. Among other pollutants, PFM also predicted SO2, NO2, CO, and O3 with R values are between 5 μg/m3 to 12 μg/m3; and MAE values between 2 μg/m3 to 11 μg/m3. PFM has extensive power to accurately predict the concentrations of air pollutants and can be used to forecast air pollution in other regions. The results of this research will be helpful for local authorities and policymakers to control air pollution and plan accordingly in upcoming years.

Nonlinear impacts of renewable energy consumption on economic growth and environmental pollution across China

Under the dual background of global climate change and regional air pollution, the emission reduction effect of renewable energy has received increasing attention worldwide. However, few studies have evaluated the nonlinear effects and spillover effects of renewable energy consumption (REC) on economy and environment over space and time. In this study, we select panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2017 and construct multiple models to quantitatively evaluate the nonlinear effects, spatial spillover effects, and spatio-temporal heterogeneity effects of REC on China's economy and the environment. The results show that REC has an N-shaped curve relationship with economic growth and has an inverted N-shaped curve relationship with haze pollution and carbon emissions. Furthermore, we find that the spatial spillover effect of REC is larger than the local effect. Interestingly, REC has a negative impact on economic growth in 40% of provinces, increases haze pollution in 30% of provinces, and increases carbon emission in 60% of provinces. It is worth noting that the current impact of REC on carbon emissions in China is at a stage of switching from negative to positive effects (60% of provinces have a positive impact).

Local and regional air pollution characteristics in Cyprus: A long-term trace gases observations analysis

Observations of key gaseous trace pollutants, namely NO, NOy, CO, SO2 and O3, performed at several curb, residential, industrial, background and free-troposphere sites were analyzed to assess the temporal and spatial variability of pollution in Cyprus. Notably, the analysis utilized one of the longest datasets of 17 years of measurements (2003–2019) in the East Mediterranean and the Middle East (EMME). This region is considered a regional hotspot of ozone and aerosol pollution.A trend analysis revealed that at several stations, a statistically significant decrease in primary pollutant concentration is recorded, most likely due to pollution control strategies. In contrast, at four stations, a statistically significant increase in ozone levels, ranging between 0.36 ppbv y−1 and 0.82 ppbv y−1, has been observed, attributed to the above strategies targeting the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) but not that of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).The NO and NOy, and CO levels at the Agia Marina regional background station were two orders of magnitude and four times lower, respectively, than the ones of the urban centers. The latter denotes that local emissions are not negligible and control a large fraction of the observed interannual and diurnal variability. Speciation analysis showed that traffic and other local emissions are the sources of urban NO and NOy. At the same time, 46 % of SO2 and 40 % of CO, on average, originate from long-range regional transport.Lastly, a one-year analysis of tropospheric NO2 vertical columns from the TROPOMI satellite instrument revealed a west-east low-to-high gradient over the island, with all major hotspots, including cities and powerplants, being visible from space. With the help of an unsupervised machine learning approach, it was found that these specific hotspots contribute overall around 10 % to the total NO2 tropospheric columns.

Fiscal Decentralization, Green Technology Innovation, and Regional Air Pollution in China: An Investigation from the Perspective of Intergovernmental Competition.

Fiscal decentralization (FD), as an institutional arrangement for the fiscal division between central and local governments, gives local governments the enthusiasm and autonomy to provide public products and services. With the dominance of environmental governance, how local governments can avoid intergovernmental “race to the bottom” issues through green technology innovation (GTI) is a matter of regional green development and continuous improvement of atmospheric environmental quality. Based on a sample of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2018, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model (SDM) to examine the relationship between FD, GTI, and regional air pollution and explores their spatial spillover effect and regional heterogeneity from the perspective of intergovernmental competition. The results indicate that the FD and GTI in various provinces had significant and regionally differentiated inhibitory effects on local air pollution. In Western China, due to the regional competition among local governments in terms of economic development, economic development-oriented fiscal expenditures crowd out environmental governance-oriented fiscal expenditures, which has led to the consequence that FD can intensify local air pollution and has a positive spillover effect, but the demonstration effect of green technological innovation can well moderate the effect of FD on air pollution. FD in the eastern region has played a positive role in promoting regional air quality improvement. However, its green technological innovation has not played a positive role in reducing emissions, and it plays a significant negative regulatory role in the emission reduction effect led by FD. Finally, the article puts forward policy recommendations in terms of a fiscal decentralization system, green technological innovation, and performance evaluation mechanism.

Regulation of Synoptic Circulation in Regional PM2.5 Transport for Heavy Air Pollution: Study of 5‐year Observation Over Central China

AbstractRegional transport of air pollutants is modulated by large‐scale synoptic circulation, which has been poorly understood for heavy air pollution in the downstream receptor region. In the present study of 5‐year (2015–2019) observation, we targeted the Twain‐Hu Basin (THB), a region of heavy PM2.5 pollution over central China, to investigate the regulation of synoptic circulation governing regional PM2.5 transport for heavy air pollution. It was found that regional transport of PM2.5 predominated 65.2% of the heavy pollution events (HPEs) over the THB based on the statistics of observational environment and meteorology. By employing the FLEXPART‐WRF model, the regional transport of PM2.5 from upwind areas in central and eastern China (CEC) to receptor region in the THB was identified with three prominent pathways in the northerly, northeasterly, and easterly directions respectively. We then used T‐mode principal component analysis in conjunction with the K‐means cluster method to categorize synoptic circulations, and it was recognized that three regional PM2.5 transport pathways for the HPEs over central China were governed respectively by three patterns of synoptic circulation over CEC with (a) weak high air pressure to the north (13.3%), (b) strong high air pressure to the northeast (46.7%), and (c) weak high air pressure to the east (40.0%). This study reveals a significant modulation of large‐scale synoptic circulation for regional transport of air pollutants in environmental change.

Calibrating the CAMS European multi-model air quality forecasts for regional air pollution monitoring

The CAMS air quality multi-model forecasts have been assessed and calibrated for PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, and CO against observations collected by the Regional Monitoring Network of the Liguria region (northwestern Italy) in the years 2019 and 2020. The calibration strategy used in the present work has its roots in the well-established Ensemble Model Output Statistics (EMOS) through which a raw ensemble forecast can be accurately transformed into a predictive probability density function, with a simultaneous correction of biases and dispersion errors. The strategy also provides a calibrated forecast of model uncertainties. As a result of our analysis, the key role of pollutant real-time observations to be ingested in the calibration strategy clearly emerge especially in the shorter look-ahead forecast hours. Our dynamic calibration strategy turns out to be superior with respect to its analogous where real-time data are not taken into account. The best calibration strategy we have identified makes the CAMS multi-model forecast system more reliable than other raw air quality models running at higher spatial resolution which exploit more detailed information from inventory emission. We expect positive impacts of our research for identifying and set up reliable and economic air pollution early warning systems.