IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i2p727-d721288.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Air Quality of Work, Residential, and Traffic Areas during the COVID-19 Lockdown with Insights to Improve Air Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Badr H. Alharbi

    (National Centre for Environmental Technology (NCET), Life Science & Environment Research Institute (LSERI), King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia)

  • Hatem A. Alhazmi

    (National Centre for Environmental Technology (NCET), Life Science & Environment Research Institute (LSERI), King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia)

  • Zaid M. Aldhafeeri

    (National Centre for Environmental Technology (NCET), Life Science & Environment Research Institute (LSERI), King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

This study investigated the concentrations of air pollutants (NO, NO 2 , NO x , SO 2 , CO, O 3 , PM 10 , and PM 2.5 ) at three sites with different traffic loads (work, residential, and traffic sites) before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects and associated potential pollution control implications of the lockdown on the quality of ambient air at three selected sites in the urban area of Riyadh City. The average concentrations of NO, NO 2 , NO x , and CO decreased during the lockdown period by 73%, 44%, 53%, and 32% at the work site; 222%, 85%, 100%, and 60% at the residential site; and 133%, 60%, 101%, and 103% at the traffic site relative to the pre-lockdown period, respectively. The average concentration of O 3 increased by 6% at the work site, whereas the concentration of SO 2 increased by 27% at the residential site and decreased by 6.5% at the work site. The changes in PM 10 and PM 2.5 varied and did not exhibit a clear pattern. The air quality index (AQI) results indicated that the contribution to “undesired” air quality by O 3 was 35.29% of the lockdown period at the work site while contributions to undesired air quality by PM 10 and PM 2.5 were 75.6% and 100% at the work site, 94.5% and 100% at the residential site, and 96.7% and 100% at the traffic site, respectively. The findings of this study are useful for devising effective urban pollution abatement policies. Applying control measures comparable to the lockdown measures over one week will result in a decrease of approximately 19% and 15% in CO mean concentration and 25% and 18% in NO 2 mean concentration at residential and traffic sites, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Badr H. Alharbi & Hatem A. Alhazmi & Zaid M. Aldhafeeri, 2022. "Air Quality of Work, Residential, and Traffic Areas during the COVID-19 Lockdown with Insights to Improve Air Quality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:727-:d:721288
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/727/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/727/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Faiz, Asif, 1993. "Automotive emissions in developing countries-relative implications for global warming, acidification and urban air quality," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 167-186, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Frank W. Rusco & W. David Walls, 1995. "Vehicular Emissions And Control Policies In Hong Kong," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 13(1), pages 50-61, January.
    2. Lynn Price & Laurie Michaelis & Ernst Worrell & Marta Khrushch, 1998. "Sectoral Trends and Driving Forces of Global Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 263-319, December.
    3. Johnstone, N. & Karousakis, K., 1999. "Economic incentives to reduce pollution from road transport: the case for vehicle characteristics taxes," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 99-108, April.
    4. Khatiwada, Dilip & Silveira, Semida, 2017. "Scenarios for bioethanol production in Indonesia: How can we meet mandatory blending targets?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 351-361.
    5. Souza, Cristiane Duarte Ribeiro de & Silva, Suellem Deodoro & Silva, Marcelino Aurélio Vieira da & D’Agosto, Márcio de Almeida & Barboza, Arthur Prado, 2013. "Inventory of conventional air pollutants emissions from road transportation for the state of Rio de Janeiro," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 125-135.

    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:2:p:727-:d:721288. 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.