IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i9p5613-d809998.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of the COVID-19 Lockdown’s Impact on Air Quality in the Larger Cities of Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Edgar Lorenzo-Sáez

    (ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Eloína Coll-Aliaga

    (ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Jose-Vicente Oliver-Villanueva

    (ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Fernando Prieto del Campo

    (Observatorio de la Sostenibilidad, 28801 Madrid, Spain)

  • Victoria Lerma-Arce

    (ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

During the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the air quality reached the best levels to be recorded in large cities in Spain. To analyze and demonstrate this improvement in air quality levels, the evolution of the average nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) levels in 78 Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants during the pre-COVID-19 years (2017–2019), the period of the COVID-19 lockdown, and the post-COVID-19 year (2021) was analyzed. The results show an improvement in the air quality in most of the cities analyzed for 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. In addition, in 2021, without the COVID-19 restrictions, the air quality levels of the largest cities in Spain showed important improvements in terms of NO 2 concentration compared to the levels in the pre-COVID-19 years (2017–2019). Nevertheless, in 2021, only 11 cities were below the average annual limit of 10 µg/m 3 NO 2 established by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, no cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants achieved NO 2 levels below the WHO limit. Finally, a detailed monthly analysis indicated that the pre-COVID-19 levels were reached again during the last months of the monitored period.

Suggested Citation

  • Edgar Lorenzo-Sáez & Eloína Coll-Aliaga & Jose-Vicente Oliver-Villanueva & Fernando Prieto del Campo & Victoria Lerma-Arce, 2022. "Analysis of the COVID-19 Lockdown’s Impact on Air Quality in the Larger Cities of Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-9, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5613-:d:809998
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5613/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5613/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Riccardo Rossi & Riccardo Ceccato & Massimiliano Gastaldi, 2020. "Effect of Road Traffic on Air Pollution. Experimental Evidence from COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, October.
    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. Maria Chiara Pietrogrande & Cristina Colombi & Eleonora Cuccia & Umberto Dal Santo & Luisa Romanato, 2023. "Seasonal and Spatial Variations of the Oxidative Properties of Ambient PM 2.5 in the Po Valley, Italy, before and during COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Ismail Anil & Omar Alagha, 2020. "Source Apportionment of Ambient Black Carbon during the COVID-19 Lockdown," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Haixia Feng & Zhouhao Wu & Xin Li & Huacai Xian & Qiang Jia & Xingyu Wang & Maoxin Zhu, 2023. "Effect of Transportation Operation on Air Quality in China Based on MODIS AOD during the Epidemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, February.
    4. Alexandra Monteiro & Celeste Eusébio & Maria João Carneiro & Mara Madaleno & Margarita Robaina & Vitor Rodrigues & Carla Gama & Hélder Relvas & Michael Russo & Kevin Oliveira & Myriam Lopes & Carlos B, 2021. "Tourism and Air Quality during COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, April.
    5. Paolo Maranzano & Matteo Maria Pelagatti, 2022. "Spatio-temporal Event Studies for Air Quality Assessment under Cross-sectional Dependence," Papers 2210.17529, arXiv.org.
    6. Christos Spandonidis & Dimitrios Paraskevopoulos & Christina Saravanos, 2023. "Neighborhood-Level Particle Pollution Assessment during the COVID-19 Pandemic via a Novel IoT Solution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, May.
    7. Franklin Oliveira & Dilan Nery & Daniel G. Costa & Ivanovitch Silva & Luciana Lima, 2021. "A Survey of Technologies and Recent Developments for Sustainable Smart Cycling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-28, March.
    8. Jorge Bañuelos-Gimeno & Natalia Sobrino & Rosa María Arce-Ruiz, 2023. "Effects of Mobility Restrictions on Air Pollution in the Madrid Region during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Periods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-23, August.
    9. Janice Hegewald & Melanie Schubert & Matthias Lochmann & Andreas Seidler, 2021. "The Burden of Disease Due to Road Traffic Noise in Hesse, Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-19, September.
    10. Luís Velez Lapão & Jorge César Correia & Marija Jevtic, 2023. "Public Health Framework for Smart Cities within the Comprehensive Approach to Sustainability in Europe: Case Study of Diabetes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Rengin Aslanoğlu & Begüm Ulusoy & Jan K. Kazak, 2024. "Air Quality of Private Interiors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Dormitory Interiors as Shared Spaces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-13, January.
    12. Fangyu Ye & Yi Li, 2024. "Road Traffic Infrastructure Construction and Air Pollution Based on the Perspective of Spatial Spillover," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-16, November.
    13. Riccardo Ceccato & Riccardo Rossi & Massimiliano Gastaldi, 2021. "Travel Demand Prediction during COVID-19 Pandemic: Educational and Working Trips at the University of Padova," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-20, June.
    14. Ceccato, Riccardo & Rossi, Riccardo & Gastaldi, Massimiliano, 2024. "Low emission zone and mobility behavior: Ex-ante evaluation of vehicle pollutant emissions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).

    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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5613-:d:809998. 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.