Silver, B orcid.org/0000-0003-0395-0637, Reddington, CL orcid.org/0000-0002-5990-4966, Arnold, SR orcid.org/0000-0002-4881-5685 et al. (1 more author) (2018) Substantial changes in air pollution across China during 2015-2017. Environmental Research Letters, 13 (11). ARTN 11401.
Abstract
China's rapid industrialisation and urbanisation has led to poor air quality. The Chinese government have responded by introducing policies to reduce emissions and setting ambitious targets for ambient PM₂.₅, SO₂, NO₂ and O₃ concentrations. Previous satellite and modelling studies indicate that concentrations of these pollutants have begun to decline within the last decade. However, prior to 2012, air quality data from ground-based monitoring stations were difficult to obtain, limited to a few locations in major cities, and often unreliable. Since then, a comprehensive monitoring network, with over 1000 stations across China has been established by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE). We use a three-year (2015–2017) dataset consisting of hourly PM₂.₅, O₂, NO₂ and SO₂ concentrations obtained from the MEE, combined with similar data from Taiwan and Hong Kong. We find that at 53% and 59% of stations, PM₂.₅ and SO₂ concentrations have decreased significantly, with median rates across all stations of −3.4 and −1.9 μg m−³ year−¹ respectively. At 50% of stations, O₃ maximum daily 8 h mean (MDA8) concentrations have increased significantly, with median rates across all stations of 4.6 μg m−³ year−¹. It will be important to understand the relative contribution of changing anthropogenic emissions and meteorology to the changes in air pollution reported here.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. A copy of the licence can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Keywords: | air pollution; China; ozone; particulate matter |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 15 Jan 2019 12:26 |
Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2019 12:26 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Institute of Physics (IoP) |
Identification Number: | 10.1088/1748-9326/aae718 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:141019 |
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