Air Quality In Areas Research Articles

INTERNET OF THINGS-BASED AIR QUALITY ANALYSIS FOR MONITORING CO2 CONCENTRATION IN ROOFTOP BUILDING AREAS

This research aims to comprehend the air quality in rooftop areas in the city of DKI Jakarta, renowned for its high population density and rapid infrastructure development. The main focus is on the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the roof area, serving as an indicator of air quality influenced by air pollution, industrial activity, and heavy transportation. The utilization of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and CO2 sensors proves to be an effective solution for real-time monitoring of CO2 concentrations. This research holds significance for air pollution control measures, providing insight into the impact of rooftop gardens in reducing CO2 emissions and inspiring future research in the realms of air quality and IoT technology. Through prior literature, three notable studies underscore the industrial and technological impact of CO2 monitoring. The research was conducted in two locations in DKI Jakarta, namely the Garden Roof and Ordinary Roof areas. Monitoring took place over four parts of the day with a four-hour interval to compare CO2 levels. The tools employed included the NodeMCU ESP8266, DHT-22 sensor, and MQ-135 sensor. Results revealed that roof areas with gardens exhibited lower average CO2 levels (295 PPM) compared to regular roofs (360 PPM), indicating the potential of garden roof designs to reduce CO2 concentrations. Research recommendations include increasing the frequency of data collection and considering additional factors for a more comprehensive understanding of urban air quality.

Trace element chemistry and strontium isotope ratios of atmospheric particulate matter reveal air quality impacts from mineral dust, urban pollution, and fireworks in the Wasatch Front, Utah, USA

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) in urban areas is derived from natural and anthropogenic sources, but it is difficult to identify how these various sources contribute to air quality. To characterize PM sources in an urban setting, we collected PM in three size fractions (PM2.5, PM10, and total suspended particulates, TSP) for two-week intervals from 2019 through 2021 in the Wasatch Front of northern Utah. The PM samples were analyzed for major and trace element concentrations and 87Sr/86Sr ratios. Using principal components analysis, we identified mineral dust, urban pollution, and fireworks as the primary PM sources affecting Wasatch Front air quality. Dust contributed Al, Be, Ca, Fe, Mg, Rb, Y, and REEs, which are typical components of carbonate and silicate minerals, with highest concentrations in the TSP fraction. Urban sources produced PM that was enriched in As, Cd, Mo, Pb, Sb, Se, and Tl, and fireworks smoke had high concentrations of Ba, Cr, Cu, K, Sr, and V. Dust events dominated PM chemistry during spring through fall, punctuated by fireworks smoke over the Independence Day holiday, while urban pollution dominated PM chemistry from November through February during winter inversions. 87Sr/86Sr ratios revealed that Sr was sourced from regional playas, local sediment, and fireworks. Strontium released from fireworks had relatively low 87Sr/86Sr ratios that dominated the PM isotopic composition during holidays. Sequential leaching showed that potentially harmful elements such as Se, Cd, and Cu were readily removed by weak acids, suggesting that they are readily available in the environment or through human inhalation. This is the first study to describe seasonal variations in PM chemistry in the Wasatch Front and serves as an example of investigating air quality in complex urban areas impacted by desert dust.

Status of vehicle emission standards in the ASEAN region

Vietnam's air quality has declined over the past few decades, especially in urban areas. There is a noticeable decrease in air quality in certain areas due to vehicle emissions. This article aims to assess the automotive emission standards of Asian nations and draw comparisons with Vietnam's emission laws. However, there are significant differences between the present emission ceilings set by different countries. For instance, Korea's pollution regulations do not favor any particular fuel, and light-duty vehicles (LDVs) are not specifically categorized according to weight. Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea have different weight categories and emission limits for cars that run on gasoline and diesel. Consequently, it is imperative to conduct a more thorough investigation into the creation of globally applicable emission standards. This will guarantee uniformity in the public's access to information and policies.

Comparing Air Quality in Coastal and Inland areas: A Case Study in Long Island and Albany NY, and a Deeper Look onto the Effect of Dispersion from Canada’s 2023 Wildfires

Comparing Air Quality in Coastal and Inland areas: A Case Study in Long Island and Albany NY, and a Deeper Look onto the Effect of Dispersion from Canada’s 2023 Wildfires

Mapping the spatial distribution of air pollutants in Quang Ninh province (Vietnam) using Sentinel 5P data

Vietnam is a country with rich mineral resources, of which coal reserves are about 8.6 billion tons, concentrated mainly in the coal basin of Quang Ninh province. Besides the economic and social benefits, coal mining has negative impacts on the environment, such as air and water pollution. Air pollution in coal mining areas seriously affects human health and the environment. This study presents the results of mapping the quarterly spatial distribution maps of air pollutants in Quang Ninh province, including CO, NO2, O3 and SO2 from Sentinel 5P TROPOMI data. Sentinel 5P TROPOMI data on four air pollutant concentrations in the entire year 2023 was collected using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform and then averaged over the quarters. The results of air pollution assessment from remote sensing data are compared with the limit values of basic parameters in the air in QCVN 05:2013/BTNMT National technical regulation on air quality. Analysis of the achieved results show that the concentrations of CO, NO2, O3 and SO2 in Quang Ninh province in 2023 are all high compared to regulations in QCVN, especially in the southern region where large coal mines are concentrated. The results received in this study provide timely information to help managers monitor air quality in coal mining areas.

The impact of restriction measures implementation due to COVID-19 on particulate atmospheric pollution in Greek urban areas

In this work, the variation on the levels of suspended particulates, in Greek urban areas, was examined, for the period of the restrictive measures implementation (period 1: March to May 2020 and period 2: November 2020 to January 2021) due to the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. The PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are measured by the National Air Pollution Monitoring Network of Greece monitored by the Energy/Environment Ministry. In particular, a comparison of the PM10 and PM2.5 concentration levels was made, concerning the above time periods, with the corresponding atmospheric pollution levels during the periods 2001-2009 (period before the Greek economic crisis), 2010-2019 (period during the Greek economic crisis), as well as with the entire time period 2001-2019. The assessment showed a significant reduction in the levels of both PM10 concentrations, which ranged from 8% to 45%, and PM2.5 concentrations, which ranged from 13% to 48%, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the control measures in improving air quality in Greek urban areas. The above findings show that with appropriate emission control strategies, vital improvements in the air environment of urban areas can be achieved.

Status of atmospheric air pollution in Ukraine prior to the full-scale russian invasion. Part 2: Pollutants total content according to the satellite data

The paper describes the main features of pollutant total content distribution over Ukraine that can be used as baseline air quality data observed before the full-scale russian invasion in Ukraine. The study is based on the data derived from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard of the Sentinel-5 Precursor (5P) satellite that indicates nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and formaldehyde (CH2O) levels. We defined the characteristics of pollutants spatial distribution with full coverage of Ukrainian territory. Despite the increasing role of automotive emissions, the most polluted air in Ukraine was still observed over large industrial cities and smaller settlements having the biggest thermal power plants (TPP). The high level of pollutants content over these locations negatively affects air quality in suburban and rural areas by the prevailing wind. They form relatively stable polluted spots over larger areas. Hence, main polluted areas include: Donetsk Region; territories in the central part of Ukraine along the Dnipro River and near the destroyed Kakhovka reservoir; Kharkiv and Zmiiv TPPs; Kyiv and Trypillia TPPs; and the territories in the western part, including Lviv, Dobrotvir and Burshtyn TPPs. The polluted air from these territories determines the air quality depending on a prevailing wind. In case of high wind speeds polluted air can be distributed from urban areas towards relatively clean territories such as Carpathian and Crimean Mountains, northern Polissia, and the Medobory National Park of Podillia. We determined quantitative parameters of wind speed and direction for every pollutant that causes higher total content over relatively clean territories. Pollutants dispersion in the atmosphere varies depending on a boundary layer height (BLH). It was found that NO2, CO and SO2 content significantly increased when the BLH was below 500 m over both urban areas and clean territories with no emission sources available. The inverse dependence on the BLH was identified for CH2O. This can be explained by a more intense photochemical production at higher altitudes. The detected baseline air pollution conditions can be used in order to assess the impact of the war on air quality in Ukraine and come up with relevant post-war development measures.

Observing Downwind Structures of Urban HCHO Plumes From Space: Implications to Non‐Methane Volatile Organic Compound Emissions

AbstractNon‐methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) have a significant impact on air quality in urban areas. Detecting NMVOCs emission with its proxy HCHO on urban scales from space, however, has been limited by the lack of discernible enhancement. Here we show clear urban HCHO plumes from 16 cities over the globe by rotating TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument HCHO pixels according to wind directions. We fit the downwind structure of the plumes with the exponentially modified Gaussian approach to quantify urban HCHO effective production rates between 7.0 and 88.5 mol s−1. Our results are in line with total NMVOC emissions from the EDGAR inventory (r = 0.76). Our work offers a new measure of total NMVOC emissions from urban areas and highlights the potential of satellite HCHO data to provide new information for monitoring urban air quality.

Unlocking Urban Insights: A Case Study on Impact of Urban Vegetation on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Variability Across Different Areas of Reggio Emilia, Italy

The Po Valley is one of the European regions most severely affected by air pollution. Within the spectrum of airborne molecules, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) represent a significant component, derived from both natural processes and anthropogenic sources. All VOCs influence air quality, as they are precursors to ozone (O3), secondary organic aerosol (SOA), and particulate matter (PM). While naturally occurring VOCs contribute to the formation of air pollutants, they also have beneficial effects on human health. Furthermore, vegetation plays a fundamental role in air purification and improvement of air quality both directly, through the metabolic processes of leaves, and indirectly, through physical mechanisms.
 This study aims to evaluate the qualitative and quantitative fluctuations of VOCs in different zones within the city of Reggio Emilia (Italy), characterized by varying percentages of vegetation cover and proximity to high-traffic roads. The collected data suggest that air quality may be influenced by the spatial distribution and type of urban area, with urban parks and green zones showing lower concentrations of total VOCs compared to areas with less vegetation cover. These observations can contribute to formulating strategies to improve air quality in urban areas and emphasize the importance of vegetation in an urban context.

Smart logistic for sustainable cities

The United Nations has agreed on sustainable cities to be one of a series of sustainable development goals (SDGs) as the eleventh goal. This shows the seriousness of the world government in viewing the role of cities to participate in building the concept of sustainability. However, on the other hand, the phenomenon of urbanization continues to increase from year to year. The increase in urbanization is followed by an increase in the number of motorized vehicles, including logistics activities in it. The increase in logistics and transportation activities has a negative impact on air quality in urban areas with its CO2 emissions. Poor air quality will certainly hamper a city's efforts in achieving the concept of sustainability or sustainable cities. Thus, solutions to improve logistics activities are needed in an effort to achieve the sustainability of a city. In today's digital era, the role of technology is enormous including in the field of logistics, by integrating technology with logistics activities, more optimal solutions related to efficiency and so on will be more easily recorded. This integration concept is known as smart logistics. This research presents the results of a review of various literatures to define the concept of sustainable cities, the concept of smart logistics, and what logistics solutions have been studied before and how these solutions can answer the challenges posed in the development of the concept of sustainable cities

Comparing the Effects of Wildfire and Hazard Reduction Burning Area on Air Quality in Sydney

Landscape fires emit smoke that contains particulate matter (PM) that can be harmful to human health. Prescribed fires or hazard reduction burns (HRBs) and wildfires can substantially reduce air quality in populated areas. While HRBs reduce the size and PM output of future wildfires, they also produce PM. There is a critical question of whether conducting HRBs adds to or reduces the total PM (prescribed + wildfire PM) exposure of populations, which has important community health implications. We modelled mean 24 h PM2.5 in Sydney from fire type, 24 h active regional fire area and weather predictors. We compared HRB and wildfire area effects via an interaction between fire area and fire type, and we found that a non-linear effect of fire area was most appropriate. We conducted a trade-off analysis by using the model to predict increased HRB area scenarios and calculated the number of HRB and wildfire days with ‘Fair’ or worse air quality under each scenario. Regional HRBs and wildfire areas had similar effects on PM2.5 in Sydney. Increasing regional HRB area produced substantial increases in HRB exceedance days (>12.5 µgm−3) in Sydney but only a small reduction in wildfire exceedance days. Our results indicate that small fires in the region have a higher per-hectare impact on PM levels in Sydney, and consequently, increasing regional HRB area would result in more poor air quality days overall (HRB + wildfire days) in Sydney.

Long term trend analysis and Spatio-temporal variation of air pollutants over Uttar Pradesh, India

Air pollution poses a significant challenge for developing countries like India, particularly in cities where industrial growth and urban development have led to increased levels of air pollutants. Due to limited monitoring resources and a focus on specific variables, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding regarding air quality in Indian urban areas. This study aims to explore the spatial and temporal variations in air pollutant concentrations and identify long-term trends over a seven-year period (2016-2022) in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Data for PM10, SO2, and NO2 were collected from 78 ambient air quality monitoring stations. The study investigates how these pollutants behave in terms of their distribution on different temporal scales (seasonal, yearly) as well as across various locations. The findings reveal that the concentration of PM10 consistently exceeds national and international air quality standards. Using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) technique, air pollutant distribution maps were created to identify specific hotspots. Additionally, the Mann-Kendall Test was applied to analyze trends within the available data. This research can serve as valuable information for local government authorities to formulate effective strategies for mitigating air pollution in the region.

Impact of NO2 emissions from household heating systems with wall-mounted gas stoves on indoor and ambient air quality in Chinese urban areas

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) has been discussed as a typical indoor pollutant for decades. As an increasingly popular heating method, household heating system (HHS) with wall-mounted natural gas stoves has led to a continuous increase in the emission of NO2. The absence of legal regulations and strict limits for NO2 emissions from wall-mounted gas stoves has led to a significant exceedance of indoor NO2 concentrations beyond the permissible value. However, this issue is rarely taken into consideration. In this study, we present the first report on NO2 emissions from wall-mounted gas stoves for household heating and their impact on indoor and ambient air quality in Chinese urban areas based on in-situ measurements and numerical simulations. On heating days, the observed indoor NO2 concentration is within 80-200 μg/m3, much higher than the outdoor atmospheric concentration. With a low emission grade of the wall-mounted gas stoves, it is estimated that >10 % of residents in a typical residential building area are exposed to a high NO2 concentration of >200 μg/m3, and >50 % of residents are exposed to a concentration of >80 μg/m3. In addition, the indoor NO2 concentration shows an obvious non-uniform distribution with the floor in residential buildings. The NO2 emission from residential natural gas heating also shows an obvious impact on the microenvironment around buildings, which is primarily determined by the emission grade of the stoves. The findings highlight that HHS has become a non-negligible source of indoor NO2 pollution in China. It is urgently necessary to formulate NO2 emission limit standards for wall-mounted gas stoves in Chinese urban areas and upgrade traditional natural gas heaters with efficient emission reduction technologies.

The interactions of aerosol and planetary boundary layer over a large city in the Mongolian Plateau

The interactions of aerosol and planetary boundary layer (PBL) play a crucial role in deteriorating the air quality in vast urban agglomeration areas in eastern China. However, there remains a lacking of report regarding their performance in the hazy events in Mongolian Plateau cities in northern China. In this study, half-month (01–16 January 2020) physical and material datasets of the PBL measured by multi instrumentations mounted in downtown Hohhot, a largest Mongolian Plateau city, are statistically analyzed. Results demonstrate that the aerosol-PBL feedback is of particular importance in promoting the hazy outbreak and the statistical relationship follows PBLH = −76.14 × ln(PM2.5) + 820.61. The non-linear fitting implies that there exists a potential threshold of 76.14 μg m−3 for PM2.5, below which the PBLH decrease rapidly along with the increasing of air pollutants, defined as strong aerosol-PBL interaction phase, while beyond which there is minimal decrease for PBLH even when PM reaches to a high value, i.e., the hazy accumulation phase. Using a large-eddy simulation model named as Dutch Atmospheric Large-Eddy Simulation (DALES) initialized with the synergetical observations in a representative hazy process in 11 January 2020, we found that the DALES is effective to capture the diurnal PBLH in this region. The existence of atmospheric aerosols is essential for lowering PBLH by 51.4 % from 1090 m of clean scenario to 530 m of polluted condition, postponing the development time, and advancing the afternoon lapse time. The enhancement of aerosol absorption ability strengthens the aerosol heating rate, thereby weakening the sensible heat flux, and inhibiting the development of PBLH. While opposite elevation on PBLH is found for the scattering aerosols. These findings highlight the importance of aerosol-PBL interaction in motivating the hazy episodes in Mongolian Plateau cities, which provide scientific references for the local policy-making towards pollution reductions in future.

Spatiotemporal Distribution Characteristics and Multi-Factor Analysis of Near-Surface PM2.5 Concentration in Local-Scale Urban Areas

Near-surface PM2.5 concentrations have been greatly exacerbated by urban land expansion and dense urban traffic. This study aims to clarify the effects of multiple factors on near-surface PM2.5 concentrations from three perspectives of background climatic variables, urban morphology variables, and traffic-related emission intensity. First, two case areas covering multiple local blocks were selected to conduct mobile measurements under different climatic conditions. The observed meteorological parameters and PM2.5 concentration were obtained through GIS-based imaging. These interpolation results of air temperature and relative humidity reveal highly spatiotemporal diversity, which is greatly influenced by artificial heat emissions and spatial morphology characteristics in local areas. The PM2.5 concentration on measurement days also varies considerably from the lowest value of 44~56 μg/m3 in October to about 500 μg/m3 in December in Harbin winter and ranges between about 5 μg/m3 and 50 μg/m3 in Guangzhou summer. The correlation analysis reveals that both the climatic conditions and urban morphology characteristics are significantly correlated with local PM2.5 concentration. Especially for Guangzhou summer, the PM2.5 concentration was positively correlated with the street traffic emission source intensity with correlation coefficient reaching about 0.79. Multivariate nonlinear formulas were applied to fit the association between these factors and PM2.5 concentration with higher determined coefficients. And optimization strategies are thus suggested to improve the urban air quality in local-scale areas. This attribution analysis contributes to environmentally friendly urban construction.

Development of surface observation-based two-step emissions adjustment and its application on CO, NOx, and SO2 emissions in China and South Korea

It is challenging to estimate local emission conditions of a downwind area solely based on concentrations in the downwind area. This is because air pollutants that have a long residence time in the atmosphere can be transported over long distances and influence air quality in downwind areas. In this study, a Two-step Emissions Adjustment (TEA) approach was developed to adjust downwind emissions of target air pollutants with surface observations, considering their long-range transported emission impacts from upwind areas calculated from air quality simulations. Using the TEA approach, CO, NOx, and SO2 emissions were adjusted in China and South Korea between 2016 and 2021 based on existing bottom-up emissions inventories. Simulations with the adjusted emissions showed that the 6-year average normalized mean biases of the monthly mean concentrations of CO, NOx, and SO2 improved to 0.3 %, −2 %, and 2 %, respectively, in China, and to 5 %, 7 %, and 4 %, respectively, in South Korea. When analyzing the emission trends, it was estimated that the annual emissions of CO, NOx, and SO2 in China decreased at a rate of 7.2 %, 4.5 %, and 10.6 % per year, respectively. The decrease rate of emissions for each of these pollutants was similar to that of ambient concentrations. When considering upwind emission impacts in the emissions adjustment, CO emissions increased by 1.3 %/year in South Korea, despite CO concentrations in the country decreasing during the study period. During the study period, NOx and SO2 emissions in South Korea decreased by 3.9 % and 0.5 %/year, respectively. Moreover, the TEA approach can account for drastic short-term emission changes (e.g., social distancing due to COVID-19). Therefore, the TEA approach can be used to adjust emissions and improve reproducibility of concentrations of air pollutants suitable for health studies for areas where upwind emission impacts are significant.

Human Health Risks and Interference of Urban Landscape and Meteorological Parameters in the Distribution of Pollutant: A Case Study of Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand

Recently, the air quality in urban areas has declined because of increasing traffic emissions. This paper aimed to determine the toxicity from exposure to pollutants among three sensitive groups of residents in urban areas. Moreover, this study also estimated the impacts of landscape and meteorological conditions on the accumulation of air pollutants in these areas. The results showed that the annual average concentration in the town exceeded the WHO air quality guidelines. Other areas that had a high traffic density also presented unacceptable levels according to the hazard quotient (HQ value ≥ 1). It was found that the air quality in the town had declined. This study also found that people living in a tropical monsoon climate should avoid exposure to air pollution in both the summer and rainy seasons; even though the pollutant concentration is lower in the rainy season, the longer exposure time causes unacceptable health risks. Humidity showed a strong impact on gas pollutant reduction (rs = −0.943). The pollutants tended to increase in areas with a high density of main roads. Additionally, building density affected the accumulation of pollutants in near-source areas and blocked pollutants in receptor areas. Therefore, this study suggests that local authorities should provide vegetation infrastructure for a sustainable air quality improvement in urban areas.

The Landscape Urban Planning Approach for Improving Urban Air Quality, Case Study of Algiers, Algeria

Gardens and urban parks are areas of great importance for the support of the urban ecosystem, in addition to their psychological and therapeutic values; they provide the urban environment with a large amount of oxygen. Trees produce oxygen through the operation of photosynthesis; one hectare of eucalyptus tree annually produces oxygen for 37 to 80 people, and absorbs 25, 000 kg of carbon dioxide for the same period of time. Wooded zone in urban areas significantly improve and purify the quality of the air that we breathe and make living environments healthier. A recent study carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) is one of the most polluted in the world, air polluted by particulate matter smaller than 2.5µm (PM2.5). For the case of Algiers, measurements were taken during the first two months of the year 2023 by the station of the United States Embassy in Algiers, showed that daily average of 14 µm/m3 for particulate matter less than 2.5 µm/m3 and a daily average of 50 for the IQA, air quality index. According to the US EPA's NAAQS, any measurement above 12.0 μg/m 3 (US AQI 50) may be hazardous to human health. Several factors of an exogenous and endogenous nature act directly on the quality of the air in large urban concentrations, CO2 emissions, modes and nature of urban mobility, uncontrolled urban sprawl. High population densities, urban forms, morphology, the size of cities, which getting larger and larger, the choice of urbanization models, and the surface of wooded areas, all are, factors responsible for air quality. This study will be particularly interested in the contribution of gardens, parks and wooded areas in improving air quality, and consequently on the quality of the living environment in urban areas. In this respect, and to understand the situation, we take the city of Algiers as a case study. The field work will allow us to understand in a qualitative and quantitative way the contribution of the tree and the choice of tree species, understanding co-relation between landscape architecture decision and results obtained on the urban air quality, and try to research on how it would possible to improve air quality in urban areas by using trees new essence.

Towards Cleaner Cities: An Analysis of the Impact of Bus Fleet Decomposition on PM and NOX Emissions Reduction in Sustainable Public Transport

The problem of poor air quality in urban areas has a negative impact on the health of residents. This is especially important during periods of smog. In Poland, as in other countries, the problem of poor air quality, especially during the winter season, is associated with a high concentration of particulate pollutants in ambient air (PM10, PM2.5). Sources of particulate emissions, in addition to solid-fuel boilers, include means of transportation, especially those equipped with diesel engines. In turn, during periods of strong sunshine (spring and summer), the problem of photochemical smog, whose precursors are nitrogen oxides NOX, arises in urban areas. Their main sources of emissions are internal combustion engines. Therefore, to improve air quality in urban areas, changes are being made in the transport sector, among which is upgrading the fleet of urban transport vehicles to low- or zero-emission vehicles, which are more environmentally friendly. In addition, measures that reduce the harmfulness of the transportation sector to air quality include the introduction of clean transportation zones, as well as park-and-ride (P&R) systems. The purpose of this article is to present the results in terms of PM10, PM2.5, and NOx emission reductions, implemented over a period of two years (2021–2022) in the area of the Rzeszow agglomeration, related to the modernization of the suburban bus fleet and the implementation of a P&R system for passenger cars. The results of the study were compared with the value of estimated emissions from coal-fired boilers used for residential heating and hot water, which also contribute to smog. Thanks to the implementation of the project, i.e., the replacement of 52 old buses with new buses of the Euro VI emission class and the construction of new P&R spaces, the total average annual reduction in emissions amounted to approximately 703.6 kg of PM10, approximately 692.7 kg of PM2.5, and a reduction of approximately 10.4 tons of NOX.

How electric vehicles benefit urban air quality improvement: A study in Wuhan

Urban air quality is a global concern, and while numerous studies have examined the impact of geography, climate, and urban development on air quality, few have considered the role of electric vehicles (EVs) in predictive models. Furthermore, little attention has been paid to the spatial heterogeneity of EVs. Given the rapid growth of the EV industry, it is crucial to understand the increasing significance of EVs and electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) on air quality. This study focuses on Wuhan, a representative polycentric city, to investigate the combined effects of EVs and EVCS on air quality, alongside other urban factors. The study employs Markov chains (MC) to process air quality data and utilizes Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) for data modeling. The results highlight that incorporating EV and EVCS variables enhances the model's fit. Notably, EVCS demonstrates a pronounced influence on improving air quality in areas with high plot ratios and building densities along the north bank of the Yangtze River. The study identifies spatial variations in the geographic distribution of both EVs and EVCS, as well as the distribution of MGWR coefficients. Three distinct regional centers in Wuhan exhibit high concentrations of EVCS per unit area. Moreover, the projected outcomes suggest that these three regions can anticipate significant improvements in air quality, with probabilities ranging from 3.93 % to 10.06 %, 4.40 % to 11.43 %, and 2.55 % to 6.52 % in achieving an Excellent Status (S1) for future air quality, under the assumption of maintaining current EV policies. This study advances our understanding of the contribution of EVs and EVCS to air quality within polycentric cities. It introduces novel research perspectives and methodologies, enriching related fields of study. The findings can inform policymakers and urban planners in developing strategies for creating cleaner and more efficient cities.