Effects of corona virus disease‐19 control measures on air quality in North China. Issue 2 (20th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zheng, Xiangyu; Guo, Bin; He, Jing; Chen, Song Xi
• Is Part Of: Environmetrics. Volume 32:Issue 2(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2021-02-20
• Subjects: difference in relative‐difference method -- meteorological adjustment -- treatment effects estimation; Environmental sciences -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; 550.72
• DOI: 10.1002/env.2673
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1180-4009

Abstract

Abstract: Corona virus disease‐19 (COVID‐19) has substantially reduced human activities and the associated anthropogenic emissions. This study quantifies the effects of COVID‐19 control measures on six major air pollutants over 68 cities in North China by a Difference in Relative‐Difference method that allows estimation of the COVID‐19 effects while taking account of the general annual air quality trends, temporal and meteorological variations, and the spring festival effects. Significant COVID‐19 effects on all six major air pollutants are found, with NO2 having the largest decline (−39.6%), followed by PM2.5 (−30.9%), O3 (−16.3%), PM10 (−14.3%), CO (−13.9%), and the least in SO2 (−10.0%), which shows the achievability of air quality improvement by a large reduction in anthropogenic emissions. The heterogeneity of effects among the six pollutants and different regions can be partly explained by coal consumption and industrial output data.