Dataset Information

Quantifying road traffic impact on air quality in urban areas: A Covid19-induced lockdown analysis in Italy.

ABSTRACT: Covid19-induced lockdown measures caused modifications in atmospheric pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. Urban road traffic was the most impacted, with 48-60% average reduction in Italy. This offered an unprecedented opportunity to assess how a prolonged (?2 months) and remarkable abatement of traffic emissions impacted on urban air quality. Six out of the eight most populated cities in Italy with different climatic conditions were analysed: Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palermo. The selected scenario (24/02/2020-30/04/2020) was compared to a meteorologically comparable scenario in 2019 (25/02/2019-02/05/2019). NO₂, O₃, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ observations from 58 air quality and meteorological stations were used, while traffic mobility was derived from municipality-scale big data. NO₂ levels remarkably dropped over all urban areas (from -24.9% in Milan to -59.1% in Naples), to an extent roughly proportional but lower than traffic reduction. Conversely, O₃ concentrations remained unchanged or even increased (up to 13.7% in Palermo and 14.7% in Rome), likely because of the reduced O₃ titration triggered by lower NO emissions from vehicles, and lower NO_x emissions over typical VOCs-limited environments such as urban areas, not compensated by comparable VOCs emissions reductions. PM₁₀ exhibited reductions up to 31.5% (Palermo) and increases up to 7.3% (Naples), while PM_2.5 showed reductions of ?13-17% counterbalanced by increases up to ?9%. Higher household heating usage (+16-19% in March), also driven by colder weather conditions than 2019 (-0.2 to -0.8 °C) may partly explain primary PM emissions increase, while an increase in agriculture activities may account for the NH₃ emissions increase leading to secondary aerosol formation. This study confirmed the complex nature of atmospheric pollution even when a major emission source is clearly isolated and controlled, and the need for consistent decarbonisation efforts across all emission sectors to really improve air quality and public health.

SUBMITTER: Gualtieri G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7500435 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quantifying road traffic impact on air quality in urban areas: A Covid19-induced lockdown analysis in Italy.

Gualtieri Giovanni G Brilli Lorenzo L Carotenuto Federico F Vagnoli Carolina C Zaldei Alessandro A Gioli Beniamino B

Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) 20200918

Covid19-induced lockdown measures caused modifications in atmospheric pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. Urban road traffic was the most impacted, with 48-60% average reduction in Italy. This offered an unprecedented opportunity to assess how a prolonged (∼2 months) and remarkable abatement of traffic emissions impacted on urban air quality. Six out of the eight most populated cities in Italy with different climatic conditions were analysed: Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Paler ...[more]

PMID: 33254679

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Project description:The outbreak of coronavirus named COVID-19, initially identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019, has spread rapidly at the global scale. Most countries have rapidly stopped almost all activities including industry, services and transportation of goods and people, thus decreasing air pollution in an unprecedented way, and providing a unique opportunity to study air pollutants. While satellite data have provided visual evidence for the global reduction in air pollution such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) worldwide, precise and quantitative information is missing at the local scale. Here we studied changes in particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), NO2, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3) at 10 urban sites in Hangzhou, a city of 7.03 million inhabitants, and at 1 rural site, before city lockdown, January 1-23, during city lockdown, January 24-February 15, and during resumption, February 16-28, in 2020. Results show that city lockdown induced a sharp decrease in PM2.5, PM10, CO, and NO2 concentrations at both urban and rural sites. The NO2 decrease is explained by reduction in traffic emissions in the urban areas, and by lower regional transport in rural areas during lockdown, as expected. SO2 concentrations decreased from 6.3 to 5.3 ?g m-3 in the city, but increased surprisingly from 4.7 to 5.8 ?g m-3 at the rural site: this increase is attributed both to higher coal consumption for heating and emissions from traditional fireworks of the Spring Eve and Lantern Festivals during lockdown. Unexpectedly, O3 concentrations increased by 145% from 24.6 to 60.6 ?g m-3 in the urban area, and from 42.0 to 62.9 ?g m-3 in the rural area during the lockdown. This finding is explained by the weakening of chemical titration of O3 by NO due to reductions of NOx fresh emissions during the non-photochemical reaction period from 20:00 PM to 9:00 AM (local time). During the lockdown, compared to the same period in 2019, the daily average concentrations in the city decreased by 42.7% for PM2.5, 47.9% for PM10, 28.6% for SO2, 22.3% for CO and 58.4% for NO2, which is obviously explained by the absence of city activities. Overall, we observed not only the expected reduction in some atmospheric pollutants (PM, SO2, CO, NO2), but also unexpected increases in SO2 in the rural areas and of ozone (O3) in both urban and rural areas, the latter being paradoxically due to the reduction in nitrogen oxide levels. In other words, the city lockdown has improved air quality by reducing PM2.5, PM10, CO, and NO2, but has also decreased air quality by augmenting O3 and SO2.

Project description:BackgroundThe Antwerp ring road has a traffic density of 300,000 vehicles per day and borders the city center. The 'Ringland project' aims to change the current 'open air ring road' into a 'filtered tunneled ring road', putting the entire urban ring road into a tunnel and thus filtering air pollution. We conducted a health impact assessment (HIA) to quantify the possible benefit of a 'filtered tunneled ring road', as compared to the 'open air ring road' scenario, on air quality and its long-term health effects.Materials and methodsWe modeled the change in annual ambient PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations by covering 15 kilometers of the Antwerp ring road in high resolution grids using the RIO-IFDM street canyon model. The exposure-response coefficients used were derived from a literature review: all-cause mortality, life expectancy, cardiopulmonary diseases and childhood Forced Vital Capacity development (FVC).ResultsOur model predicts changes between -1.5 and +2 μg/m³ in PM2.5 within a 1,500 meter radius around the ring road, for the 'filtered tunneled ring road' scenario as compared to an 'open air ring road'. These estimated annual changes were plotted against the population exposed to these differences. The calculated change of PM2.5 is associated with an expected annual decrease of 21 deaths (95% CI 7 to 41). This corresponds with 11.5 deaths avoided per 100,000 inhabitants (95% CI 3.9-23) in the first 500 meters around the ring road every year. Of 356 schools in a 1,500 meter perimeter around the ring road changes between -10 NO2 and + 0.17 μg/m³ were found, corresponding to FVC improvement of between 3 and 64ml among school-age children. The predicted decline in lung cancer mortality and incidence of acute myocardial infarction were both only 0.1 per 100,000 inhabitants or less.ConclusionThe expected change in PM2,5 and NO2 by covering the entire urban ring road in Antwerp is associated with considerable health gains for the approximate 352,000 inhabitants living in a 1,500 meter perimeter around the current open air ring road.

Dataset Information

Quantifying road traffic impact on air quality in urban areas: A Covid19-induced lockdown analysis in Italy.

Publications

Quantifying road traffic impact on air quality in urban areas: A Covid19-induced lockdown analysis in Italy.

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