IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i19p12904-d936597.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changes in Air Quality and Drivers for the Heavy PM 2.5 Pollution on the North China Plain Pre- to Post-COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Shuang Liu

    (College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China)

  • Xingchuan Yang

    (College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China)

  • Fuzhou Duan

    (College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China)

  • Wenji Zhao

    (College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China)

Abstract

Under the clean air action plans and the lockdown to constrain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the air quality improved significantly. However, fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) pollution still occurred on the North China Plain (NCP). This study analyzed the variations of PM 2.5 , nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O 3 ) during 2017–2021 on the northern (Beijing) and southern (Henan) edges of the NCP. Furthermore, the drivers for the PM 2.5 pollution episodes pre- to post-COVID-19 in Beijing and Henan were explored by combining air pollutant and meteorological datasets and the weighted potential source contribution function. Results showed air quality generally improved during 2017–2021, except for a slight rebound (3.6%) in NO 2 concentration in 2021 in Beijing. Notably, the O 3 concentration began to decrease significantly in 2020. The COVID-19 lockdown resulted in a sharp drop in the concentrations of PM 2.5 , NO 2 , SO 2 , and CO in February of 2020, but PM 2.5 and CO in Beijing exhibited a delayed decrease in March. For Beijing, the PM 2.5 pollution was driven by the initial regional transport and later secondary formation under adverse meteorology. For Henan, the PM 2.5 pollution was driven by the primary emissions under the persistent high humidity and stable atmospheric conditions, superimposing small-scale regional transport. Low wind speed, shallow boundary layer, and high humidity are major drivers of heavy PM 2.5 pollution. These results provide an important reference for setting mitigation measures not only for the NCP but for the entire world.

Suggested Citation

  • Shuang Liu & Xingchuan Yang & Fuzhou Duan & Wenji Zhao, 2022. "Changes in Air Quality and Drivers for the Heavy PM 2.5 Pollution on the North China Plain Pre- to Post-COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-20, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12904-:d:936597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12904/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12904/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Asif Iqbal & Shirina Afroze & Md. Mizanur Rahman, 2019. "Probabilistic Health Risk Assessment of Vehicular Emissions as an Urban Health Indicator in Dhaka City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Beom-Soon Han & Kyeongjoo Park & Kyung-Hwan Kwak & Seung-Bu Park & Han-Gyul Jin & Sungju Moon & Jong-Won Kim & Jong-Jin Baik, 2020. "Air Quality Change in Seoul, South Korea under COVID-19 Social Distancing: Focusing on PM 2.5," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-12, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wen-Lu Wu & Chun-Yan Shan & Jing Liu & Jing-Lin Zhao & Jin-Yun Long, 2023. "Analysis of Factors Influencing Air Quality in Different Periods during COVID-19: A Case Study of Tangshan, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Mohsen Maghrebi & Ali Danandeh Mehr & Seyed Mohsen Karrabi & Mojtaba Sadegh & Sadegh Partani & Behzad Ghiasi & Vahid Nourani, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Variations of Air Pollution during the COVID-19 Pandemic across Tehran, Iran: Commonalities with and Differences from Global Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-23, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Asif Iqbal & Md Mizanur Rahman & Simon Beecham, 2022. "Spatial Analysis of the Water Harvesting Potential of Permeable Pavements in Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Asif Iqbal & Shirina Afroze & Md. Mizanur Rahman, 2020. "Vehicular PM Emissions and Urban Public Health Sustainability: A Probabilistic Analysis for Dhaka City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Joshua Ezekiel Rito & Neil Stephen Lopez & Jose Bienvenido Manuel Biona, 2021. "Modeling Traffic Flow, Energy Use, and Emissions Using Google Maps and Google Street View: The Case of EDSA, Philippines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    4. Hyemin Hwang & Jae Young Lee, 2022. "Impacts of COVID-19 on Air Quality through Traffic Reduction," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-12, February.
    5. Hyunjung Lee & Sookuk Park & Helmut Mayer, 2023. "Statistical Characteristics of Air Quality Index DAQx*-Specific Air Pollutants Differentiated by Types of Air Quality Monitoring Stations: A Case Study of Seoul, Republic of Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-25, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12904-:d:936597. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.