Ministry Of Environmental Protection Research Articles

Enhancing solid-liquid separation performance of copper tailings by regulating settling floc properties

The effective improvement of dewatering performance of fine tailings slurry is a common challenge in tailings disposal and mining environmental protection worldwide. Flocculation is a commonly used method for solid-liquid separation of tailings, and the properties and structure of tailings flocs play a key role in sedimentation and filtration performance. This study proposed to improve the dewatering efficiency of tailings by regulating the floc properties and structure through polycarboxylate ether/ester (PCE). It simultaneously enhanced dewatering speed and reduced filter cake moisture. Dewatering experiments results showed that the assistance of PCE increased the initial filtration rate (IFR) of tailings by approximately 60 % and reduced filter cake moisture by 4.16 %. Moreover, the increase of shear strength in the slurry had a detrimental effect on dewatering performance. The dynamic evolution process of flocs was studied using focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) technology. The results showed that the addition of PCE caused a significant increase in floc size and counts, while the structural strength and regrowth ability of flocs also improved. Floc density calculations and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations revealed that PCE caused densification of flocs, with particles aggregating more compactly. Contact angle analysis indicated that the adsorption of PCE on particles surface weakened their hydrophilicity. This study could conduce to understand the mechanism of dewatering performance enhancement in solid-liquid separation.

The Waste Landfill Policy in Israel: Economic and Political Perspectives

The consistent and continuous growth in the world’s population is creating many challenges for public policymakers in the different life areas, including dealing with the increasing amounts of waste that are generating problems involving air and land pollution and a shortage of land for waste disposal. This study presents the effects of public policy on managing municipal waste, measured as the quantity and rate of waste collected throughout Israel in recent years and disposed of in various landfills. An analysis of the political and economic factors affecting this policy is also conducted. The study combines a quantitative and qualitative approach, where the quantitative study includes the analysis of statistical data based on information from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Finance, and others, and the qualitative study relies on reading and analyzing the primary documents of different government ministries on Israel’s waste disposal policy and information in the media on this issue. The research findings attest to an increase in the amount of municipal waste dumped in Israel, a merely slight decrease in the rate of landfilling as a proportion of all municipal waste disposal, and a merely slight increase in the rate of municipal waste recycled in recent years. The research conclusions stress the effects of the landfill levy and the Cleanliness Maintenance Fund on one hand and of government instability in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the positivist policy embraced by decision makers in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the power struggles between Israel’s different ministries on the other hand, as the respective economic and political factors affecting Israeli policy on municipal waste management. The article contributes to understanding the dynamics of municipal waste management policy in Israel by providing empirical data, analyzing influencing factors, and offering insights into the challenges and opportunities in this area. This study can serve as the basis for future studies that will examine the waste landfill policy in Israel in the context of pressing global challenges such as climate change, the advancement of novel waste treatment technologies, and the potential stabilization of Israel’s political system.

A bilevel programming model for cross-regional energy coordination mechanism to relieve China’s atmospheric pollution

The research motivation comes from the fact that the vigorously promoted ‘coal to gas’policy under the pressure of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection(MEP) has led to severe gas shortage in many regions. This study explores a cross-regional energy coordination scheme, in which China’s MEP sets pollution transfer prices and pollution standards for each region, while each region determines its energy inputs and pollutant removal amounts. It is first formulated as a bilevel programming called PTEC and then it is transformed and a corresponding algorithm is proposed. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, the SO2 control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Delta is finally selected. Results display that to meet the national pollution standards, the PTEC mode just need to reduce SO2 by 1.5434 million tons, which is 5.02% and 4.97% lower than the current command mode and the ‘coal to gas’ mode, respectively. Furthermore, the PTEC increases the industrial net output of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei by 21.9037%, 43.4486%, and 11.0651% compared with the other two modes. Our study can provide certain reference significance for pollution control and energy structure optimization.

Protection of lands in Ukraine: scientific and management solutions in the conditions of military actions

The research by the authors reveals that after the legislative definition of land protection content in Ukraine, neither scientific nor managerial support for the implementation of the defined tasks has been organized. To date, land protection standards have not been developed, and neither land planning nor economic instruments are being implemented. Furthermore, the situation concerning land protection has deteriorated due to ongoing military actions on Ukraine's territory. During research, the authors calculated the amount of damage from soil pollution according to the Methodology proposed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine dated 04.04.2022 No. 167. According to the calculations, the amount of damage to 1 hectare of arable land contaminated with petroleum products will be 506 thousand UAH/ha, while the norm for the Kyiv region as of December 18, 2023 is 2,362 thousand UAH/ha, which is 4.66 times higher. The authors proposed approach to assessing the damage caused to land resources that were damaged by military actions on the regional territories and for territorial communities. Furthermore, it has been observed that for carrying out restoration works to eliminate the consequences of armed aggression and combat actions in the respective territories of Ukraine, there remains an important task of scientifically substantiated development and adoption of relevant regulatory and methodological documents. It is proposed to determine pilot projects and foreign grants for their development.

Sustainable development at school: teaching the «5R» principle (on the example of the Zero Waste Kharkiv summer camp for children from the IDPS)

Today's Ukraine is facing unprecedented environmental pollution caused by a full-scale invasion and military aggression. In addition to systematic work to reduce the impact of military operations on the environment, the issue of developing environmental awareness and adherence to environmental behavior to prevent or at least reduce environmental pollution is becoming even more urgent. Teaching environmental behavior to school-age children is particularly important and promising in this context. The article is devoted to the study of the practice of teaching the «5R» principle to children through interactive games, informal lectures and discussions. The «5R» principle is a comprehensive approach that aims to achieve environmental safety for modern society and future generations, that is why it must be learned in childhood. The principle itself is an element of the «zero waste» lifestyle, which was launched by a French eco-activist in the 2000s. The article examines the essence and components of the «5R» principle (refuse, reduse, reuse, recycle, rot), how this principle will contribute to sustainable development, and how this principle can be implemented in education. An example of the implementation of the 5R principle in education is the Kharkiv Zero Waste summer camp, which was organized for children from IDP families (from the de-occupied areas of Kharkiv region). The project was implemented by the Center for Civic and Media Initiatives (Zero Waste Kharkiv) with the support of Calidris and information support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. Out of the total number of 64 applications submitted, 13 participants were selected to participate in the project, including the Kharkiv team of the FUSILLI project. The article highlights successful camp practices, peculiarities of working with the target audience (in particular, the need to take into account the previous experience of children) and prospects for implementing the 5R principle not only during local events (such as camps), but also implementing the principle as a cross-cutting practice in the educational process.

Does environmental pollution liability insurance affect corporate green innovation? New evidence from China

The effect of the development of green finance (GF) on the green transformation of corporations has been a key research issue in recent years. This study is based on a list of companies insured under the environmental pollution liability insurance (EPI) announced by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (formerly the Ministry of Environmental Protection) in 2014 and 2015. Considering A-share listed companies in China as research samples and using the DID model, we investigate the impact of EPI on corporate green innovation (CGI). The results show that EPL can significantly promote the green innovation level of insured corporations, mainly reflected in two aspects of green invention patents and green utility model patents; this positive effect is more obvious in non-state-owned, heavily polluting, and patent-intensive corporations. These results hold after the robustness test. The mechanism analysis reveals that EPL promotes corporate green innovation by alleviating corporate financing constraints. This study provides new evidence for the role of GF in promoting green innovation and transformation in China.

The effect of environmental centralisation on productivity: Evidence from an administrative reform in China

AbstractThis paper adopts a novel institutional perspective—environmental centralisation—to examine its impact on firm productivity in developing countries. In 2008, China's State Environmental Protection Administration was upgraded to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). This administrative reform strengthened the central government's ability to protect the environment, enabling it to address more environmental affairs and concentrate on environmental rights. Based on the quasi‐natural experiment of the establishment of the MEP, this study takes a new perspective on the impact of environmental centralisation on productivity. The difference‐in‐difference‐in‐difference approach is used for the first time to estimate the impact of environmental centralisation on productivity. We find that environmental centralisation caused by the establishment of the MEP significantly increased the productivity of heavily polluting companies, and a series of robustness tests confirm that the results are credible. We identify three possible mechanisms, namely, facilitating innovation, curbing rent‐seeking behaviour and inhibiting over‐investments. The policy implication of this study is that the effectiveness of environmental policy depends not only on the policy itself but also on the allocation of environmental rights among different levels of government.

Carbonate rocks as natural buffers: Exploring their environmental impact on heavy metals in sulfide deposits

Carbonate rocks are closely related to the genesis and spatial distribution of polymetallic sulfide deposits. The natural buffering of carbonate rocks can reduce the ecological impact of heavy metals produced by mining and smelting. Ignoring the buffering effect of carbonate rocks on the heavy metals in the mine environment leads to inaccurate ecological risk assessment, wasting land resources and funds. This study investigates Cd, Zn, and Pb distribution and speciation in the water and soil-rice system in the polymetallic sulfide deposit at Daxin, Guangxi. The study aims to reveal the effects of the natural buffering of carbonate rocks on the migration and transformation of heavy metals. The results show that the water Zn and Cd concentrations decreased from 1857.0 to 0.9 mg L−1 to 0.16 and 0.001 mg L−1, respectively, from the mining area to 4 km downstream. The natural buffering of carbonate increases the water pH from 2.80 to 7.64, resulting in a tendency for Cd, Zn, and Pb to separate from the aqueous phase and enrich the sediments. Soil Cd content in the mining area reached 110.0 mg kg−1 (mean value 55.88 mg kg−1), and rice Cd seriously exceeded the maximum limit. However, the weathering of carbonate reduces the migration ability and bioavailability of Cd. Soil Cd is mainly in the Fe–Mn bound and carbonate-bound fractions, resulting in lower Cd content in downstream soils (mean value 2.73 mg kg−1). Soil CaO, tFe2O3, and Mn hindered the uptake of soil Cd by rice rendering a lower exceedance of Cd in downstream rice. Therefore, this study recommends a farmland management plan under the premise of rice Cd content and integrated soil Cd content, which ensures food safety and fully utilizes farmland resources. This result provides a scientific basis for ecological risk assessment, mine environmental protection, and management in the carbonatite sulfide mine environment.

A comprehensive solution to the problem of ensuring a good environmental status of the marine environment across the coastal area that is adjacent to the northern part of the City of Odesa

The research identifies and describes the most urgent problems associated with the anthropogenic impact on the sea's coastal zone affecting the northern part of the city of Odesa and the marine-origin water bodies that are adjacent to it, i.e. Odesa Bay of the north-western part of the Black Sea, the Khadzhybeiskyi and Kuialnytskyi Estuaries. These problems include: impossibility to discharge the return water coming from the municipal sewage biological treatment station (BTS) "Pivnichna” into the sea’s coastal zone or to use it economically wise as technical water because of insufficient degree of treatment; a high degree of water pollution and unsatisfactory environmental condition of the Khadzhybeiskyi Estuary that is adjacent to Odesa, increase of its water level to critical marks because of the constant flow to the estuary of return water from BTS "Pivnichna"; shallowing and potential complete drying up of the hypersaline Kuialnytskyi Estuary that may lead to loss of natural resources of the resort of state importance and salinization of its adjacent territories; periodic deterioration of the sea water quality within the coastal recreation area of Odesa, prohibition of swimming at certain beaches after heavy downpours because of influx into the sea of untreated stormwater runoff coming from the city. The research demonstrates that all these problems are interconnected to a certain extent and can be solved comprehensively in the course of implementation of a single strategy of environmental protection measures that are defined and substantiated in this article. The key and high-priority element of such strategy consists in modernization of sewage treatment facilities and introduction of modern technologies of advanced wastewater purification at BTS "Pivnichna”. It is recommended to include the constituent elements of the strategy into the Action plan to achieve and maintain the "good" environmental status of the Azov and Black Seas for the period 2022-2027 being jointly developed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine alongside with interested executive central and local bodies as part of implementation of the Marine Environmental Protection Strategy of Ukraine.

Disguised pollution: Industrial activities in the dark

In this study we investigate disguised pollution by industrial firms in China. We find that sulfur dioxide (SO2) readings increase by 10.8% in air pollution monitoring stations four hours after sunset in high factory density areas, controlling for station-year, date, and city-hour fixed effects. Physical inspections by the Ministry of Environmental Protection may only temporarily reduce disguised pollution, suggesting that reliance on physical inspections to enforce regulations is ineffective if firms can shift production activities to non-daylight hours. We show that direct monitoring, as is done with some large polluters in China, can prevent this and should be cost-effective to extend to all industrial polluters.

Methods of increasing the corrosion resistance of underground water supply pipelines

The main causes of premature destruction of the pipeline network of water supply and drainage within the territory of Ukraine are the following: factory (metallurgical) defects of pipes, assembly defects (as a rule, they occur during installation work directly on the object), corrosion damage and destruction of the pipe body and welded connection, natural and deformational aging of metal, external loads and internal excess stresses, lack of high-quality anti-corrosion protection, long (exceeding normative) service life of pipelines that are in direct contact with a corrosive-aggressive environment, etc. Analysis of the general condition of centralized water supply and centralized water drainage systems for 2021. Carried out for 19 regions and the city of Kyiv. Based on the analysis, the following conclusions were drawn: centralized water supply covers 98.7% of cities (absent in 4 cities), 90.3% of rural settlements (absent in 46 rural settlements), and 23.5% of rural settlements, 67.4% of rural settlements and 1.5% of rural settlements. To ensure the development and reconstruction of systems of centralized drinking water supply and centralized water drainage in populated areas of Ukraine and to provide the population with quality drinking water in sufficient quantity, the Ministry of Regions has developed the State-wide target program "Drinking water of Ukraine", which provides for the implementation of more than 1,747 infrastructure projects in the regions during 2022-2026 years In addition, the following measures are recommended for the development of water supply and drainage enterprises: the creation of effective response systems in case of emergency situations, in particular, a logistics chain for the supply of the necessary welding and assembly resources (materials, equipment, labor, etc.); attraction of investments for the modernization of water supply and treatment facilities of the central drainage system; carrying out scientific and research works for the purpose of modernization of engineering facilities for wastewater treatment; modernization of pipeline structures and treatment facilities with the involvement of modern welding and assembly technologies and materials. In addition, in order to increase the reliability of water supply and sewage networks, it is now necessary to carry out certification and inspection of pipelines. Knowing the degree of wear and tear of the pipe wall and the service life, you can calculate the nominal pressure of the pipeline and make a decision about its replacement or rehabilitation. Using the failure criterion for "critical" points, it is possible to predict the complications of network operation, model redundancy for them, and optimize their operation. It is proposed to equip specialized mobile laboratories on the basis of water utilities, which allow network diagnostics and emergency cleaning of pipelines and water disinfection. Specialists of the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine carried out systematic work on assessing the technical condition of water supply networks. The materials officially provided by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine served as the basis for such works. The curator of this work was the State Enterprise "Scientific-Research and Design-Technological Institute of Urban Economy" (Kyiv).

Beijing Blue: Impact of the 2008 Olympic Games and 2014 APEC Summit on Air Quality.

This paper examines the effects of interventions to reduce air pollution during two international events on air quality in Beijing and its neighbor cities. Air quality data were gathered from China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, meteorological data from the China Meteorological Administration and economic data from the China Statistical Yearbook. The paper uses fixed-effect panel data models to empirically evaluate air quality improvement in Beijing and other affected cities before, during, and after the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Results show substantial improvement in air quality in Beijing and neighboring cities during the two events. However, some of the air quality improvement achieved reverted within a year after the games and within a week after the summit. Furthermore, the improvement achieved during the summit completely reverted and air quality deteriorated severely five days after the summit. It is also found that air quality in China, at least in the cities included in this study, gradually improved over the past 15 years or so. The findings suggest that sustainable interventions and incentive-based programs to reduce emissions from industry production and traffic are the key to maintaining the air pollution reduction achieved during the events.

ASSESSMENT OF STATE FINANCING OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES ACCORDING TO THE MAIN DISTRIBUTORS OF FUNDS IN THE CONTEXT OF ENSURING ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY

The article analyzes the significance of scientific and technical progress from the point of view of the level of activation of scientific and technical activity by the main managers of financial funds. Scientific and technical activity in Ukraine was studied based on the financing of fundamental scientific research, applied scientific research and scientific and technical (experimental) developments and the amount of scientific and technical products created at the expense of the general fund by the main managers. The dynamics of financing of scientific and technical (experimental) developments per unit of scientific (scientific and technical) production by the main managers of funds were analyzed, which allowed to identify the managers of the maximum funding for scientific (scientific and technical) development: Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ministry of Environmental Protection and natural resources of Ukraine and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. For all other main managers (nineteen items), the amount of funding for applied scientific research and scientific and technical (experimental) development per unit of scientific (scientific and technical) production is less than UAH 1 million. By using the method of analyzing the functioning environment, the level of efficiency (or inefficiency) of the activities of various managers of funds, calculated on the basis of the cost of a unit of scientific (scientific and technical) production, was determined. This analysis made it possible to build an efficiency line for the two main managers of funds (the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine and the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine) and to determine the general trend of inefficiency in the activities of other managers of funds (the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine and National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine). An assessment of the prospects for increasing the effectiveness of the implementation of scientific research and the implementation of scientific and technical (experimental) developments was carried out, with the existing financing by the main managers of funds, which allowed to calculate the amount of a possible increase in the amount of funding for fundamental scientific research, applied scientific research and scientific and technical (experimental) development.

Evaluation model and promotion based on the ecological characteristics of Saihanba

Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm is an important sand source control project area in China. In order to promote the excellent case of Saihanba to other regions of the country and even the Asia-Pacific region, we have established a Saihanba ecological environmental impact model and ecological engineering construction assessment model, to provide suggestions for the establishment of ecological protection areas in China and even countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This paper determined the index of Saihanba ecological influence evaluation system using frequency analysis method and theoretical research method, determined the TOPSIS weight based on entropy weight method, to establish a complete ecological and environmental influence evaluation system. Subsequently, the paper introduced the data of relevant indicators around 1962 into the evaluation system, which got good scores, indicating that Saihanba has a great positive impact on the ecological environment. On the basis of problem 1, this paper had redefined the index and weight, established the index system based on the sandstorm background in Beijing, and brought the relevant data of Beijing in recent years into the model, and the establishment of Saihanba had played a relatively significant optimization effect on all the indicators of the sandstorm in Beijing. In view of problem 3, this article was first divided into 9 different ecological system service functional zones according to the National ecological function zoning (revised version) proposed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, based on the TOPSIS model, proposed a modified model based on DPSIR. The model fully omitted the impact of ecological, economic, policy and other factors on the construction of ecological protection areas .Meanwhile, multi-objective planning method based on genetic algorithm was used to solve the above problems to determine the best number and scale of ecological reserves in the region.

Can Pollution Regulations Enable Key Industries to Reduce CO2 Emissions?—Empirical Evidence from China, Based on Green Innovative Technology Patents and Energy Efficiency Perspectives

Under the influence of the dual policies of sustainable economic development and the national dual-carbon target, the establishment of an environmental protection department for the treatment of heavily polluting industries is imminent, and the country has launched pollution control policies and regulations to restrict the emission rights of heavily polluting industries. Therefore, this paper focuses on whether the restriction of emission rights in key industries has reduced carbon emissions. To achieve this, this paper uses panel data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019 and adopts a two-way fixed-effects DID model to systematically analyze the impact of the key pollution industry governance policies launched by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on CO2 emissions in 2017. And further analyze the role of variables such as green technology innovation patents and energy efficiency using this model, while parallel trend tests and placebo tests, and related policies are used to ensure the robustness of the regression results. This paper reveals that: (1) The heavy pollution industry governance policy implemented in 2017 can effectively reduce CO2 emissions in the cities of the treated group, and the effect is more significant in the year of policy implementation; (2) Green utility patents and energy-use efficiency are the effective mediating mechanisms to reduce CO2 emissions; (3) Over time, the effect of heavy pollution industry governance policy on CO2 emissions gradually decreases; (4) The reliability of the baseline regression results of this paper is proved by the use of parallel trend tests, placebo tests, and tests excluding the influence factors such as relevant policies in the same period. Therefore, the key polluting industries treatment policy launched by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2017 under the recent dual-carbon policy development goals formulated by China, can effectively reduce carbon emissions; however, in the future economic development process, the government should give more consideration to the continuity of the policy impact and its coherence on economic development when implementing the policy.

Prediction Model of Soil Heavy Metal Content Based on Particle Swarm Algorithm Optimized Neural Network.

In 2014, the relevant research data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources showed that the total exceedance rate of soil heavy metal pollution in China had reached 16.1%, and in the construction of ecological civilization in the 13th Five-Year Plan, China has made the prevention and control of soil heavy metal pollution as the focus of prevention and control. Therefore, in this paper, four neural optimization network models, that is, radial basis neural network (RBFNN), generalized regression neural network (GRNN), wavelet neural network (WNN), and fuzzy neural network (FNN), are simulated and created to measure and correlate the soil heavy metal content in a city in northwest China and a city in central China from the actual situation in China. The simulations were conducted. Finally, by analyzing the comparison of predicted and true values of these four models on the test data of two sets of experimental data, the distribution of predicted differences to true values, and the calculation results of three error indicators, we found that WNN has the best prediction performance when using RBFNN, GRNN, WNN, and FNN for soil heavy metal content prediction.

Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance of Health Risk and Corporate Environmental Performance: Evidence From China.

Environmental pollution liability insurance (EPLI) is a type of insurance purchased by an enterprise to compensate the loss of the victims in the event of an environmental pollution incident. Although EPLI can realize the post-treatment of environmental pollution to a certain extent, there is still less understanding of whether EPLI can improve the environmental performance of enterprises. This study takes A-share listed companies in heavily polluting industries as the research object, determines the treatment group samples according to the Insurance coverage list published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2014 and 2015, and then constructs the empirical test model. In order to ensure that there is no sample selection bias, the PSM method is used to preprocess the samples in this study to ensure the robustness of the conclusions. The empirical tests show that EPLI can significantly improve corporate environmental performance. Further analysis showed that higher public visibility is conducive to the positive environmental effects of EPLI. Compared with state-owned enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises have more significant implementation effects after introducing EPLI. On further examination, the result indicates that environmental pollution liability insurance can improve environmental performance by alleviating corporate financing constraints. The findings of this paper enrich the theory of the economic impact of environmental pollution liability insurance, which has some meaningful theoretical guidance for enterprises and policy makers.

Restricted Anthropogenic Activities and Improved Urban Air Quality in China: Evidence from Real-Time and Remotely Sensed Datasets Using Air Quality Zonal Modeling

The study aims to examine the major atmospheric air pollutants such as NO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, PM10, and SO2 to assess the overall air quality using air quality zonal modeling of 15 major cities of China before and after the COVID-19 pandemic period. The spatio-temporal changes in NO2 and other atmospheric pollutants exhibited enormous reduction due to the imposition of a nationwide lockdown. The present study used a 10-day as well as 60-day tropospheric column time-average map of NO2 with spatial resolution 0.25 × 0.25° obtained from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, NASA. The air quality zonal model was employed to assess the total NO2 load and its change during the pandemic period for each specific region. Ground surface monitoring data for CO, NO2, O3, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2 including Air Quality Index (AQI) were collected from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (MEPC). The results from both datasets demonstrated that NO2 has drastically dropped in all the major cities across China. The concentration of CO, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2 demonstrated a decreasing trend whereas the concentration of O3 increased substantially in all cities after the lockdown effect as observed from real-time monitoring data. Because of the complete shutdown of all industrial activities and vehicular movements, the atmosphere experienced a lower concentration of major pollutants that improves the overall air quality. The regulation of anthropogenic activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not only contained the spread of the virus but also facilitated the improvement of the overall air quality. Guangzhou (43%), Harbin (42%), Jinan (33%), and Chengdu (32%) have experienced maximum air quality improving rates, whereas Anshan (7%), Lanzhou (17%), and Xian (25%) exhibited less improved AQI among 15 cities of China during the study period. The government needs to establish an environmental policy framework involving central, provincial, and local governments with stringent laws for environmental protection.

COVID-19 Lockdown in Israel: The Environmental Effect on Ultrafine Particle Content in the Airway.

Inhaled ultrafine particle (UFP) content in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) was observed as an airway inflammatory marker and an indicator of exposure to particulate matter (PM). The exceptional decline in air pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown was an opportunity to evaluate the effect of environmental changes on UFP airway content. We collected EBC samples from 30 healthy subjects during the first lockdown due to COVID-19 in Israel (March–April 2020) and compared them to EBC samples retrieved during April–June 2016 from 25 other healthy subjects (controls) living in the same northern Israeli district. All participants underwent EBC collection and blood sampling. Ambient air pollutant levels were collected from the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection’s online database. Data were acquired from the monitoring station closest to each subject’s home address, and means were calculated for a duration of 1 month preceding EBC collection. UFP contents were measured in the EBC and blood samples by means of the NanoSight LM20 system. There was a dramatic reduction in NO, NO2, SO2, and O3 levels during lockdown compared to a similar period in 2016 (by 61%, 26%, 50%, and 45%, respectively). The specific NO2 levels were 8.3 ppb for the lockdown group and 11.2 ppb for the controls (p = 0.01). The lockdown group had higher UFP concentrations in EBC and lower UFP concentrations in serum compared to controls (0.58 × 108/mL and 4.3 × 108/mL vs. 0.43 × 108/mL and 6.7 × 108/mL, p = 0.05 and p = 0.03, respectively). In this observational study, reduced levels of air pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown were reflected in increased levels of UFP airway contents. The suggested mechanism is that low airway inflammation levels during lockdown resulted in a decreased UFP translocation to serum. Further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

InSAR Modeling and Deformation Prediction for Salt Solution Mining Using a Novel CT-PIM Function

Deformation prediction for a salt solution mining area is essential to mining environmental protection. The combination of Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) technique with Probability Integral Method (PIM) has proven to be powerful in predicting mining-induced subsidence. However, traditional mathematical empirical models (such as linear model or linear model combined with periodical function) are mostly used in InSAR approaches, ignoring the underground mining mechanisms, which may limit the accuracy of the retrieved deformations. Inaccurate InSAR deformations will transmit an unavoidable error to the estimated PIM parameters and the forward predicted subsidence, which may induce more significant errors. Besides, theoretical contradictory and non-consistency between InSAR deformation model and future prediction model is another limitation. This paper introduces the Coordinate-Time (CT) function into InSAR deformation modeling. A novel time-series InSAR model (namely, CT-PIM) is proposed as a substitute for traditional InSAR mathematical empirical models and directly applied for future dynamic prediction. The unknown CT-PIM parameters can be estimated directly via InSAR phase observations, which can avoid the error propagation from the InSAR-generated deformations. The new approach has been tested by both simulated and real data experiments over a salt mine in China. The root mean square error (RMSE) is determined as ±10.9 mm, with an improvement of 37.2% compared to traditional static PIM prediction method. The new approach provides a more robust tool for the forecasting of mining-induced hazards in salt solution mining areas, as well as a reference for ensuring the environment protection and safety management.