Dataset Information

Estimating the Impact of COVID-19 on the PM_2.5 Levels in China with a Satellite-Driven Machine Learning Model.

ABSTRACT: China implemented an aggressive nationwide lockdown procedure immediately after the COVID-19 outbreak in January 2020. As China emerges from the impact of COVID-19 on national economic and industrial activities, it has become the site of a large-scale natural experiment to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on regional air quality. However, ground measurements of fine particulate matters (PM_2.5) concentrations do not offer comprehensive spatial coverage, especially in suburban and rural regions. In this study, we developed a machine learning method with satellite aerosol remote sensing data, meteorological fields and land use parameters as major predictor variables to estimate spatiotemporally resolved daily PM_2.5 concentrations in China. Our study period consists of a reference semester (1 November 2018-30 April 2019) and a pandemic semester (1 November 2019-30 April 2020), with six modeling months in each semester. Each period was then divided into subperiod 1 (November and December), subperiod 2 (January and February) and subperiod 3 (March and April). The reference semester model obtained a 10-fold cross-validated R² (RMSE) of 0.79 (17.55 μg/m³) and the pandemic semester model obtained a 10-fold cross-validated R² (RMSE) of 0.83 (13.48 μg/m³) for daily PM_2.5 predictions. Our prediction results showed high PM_2.5 concentrations in the North China Plain, Yangtze River Delta, Sichuan Basin and Xinjiang Autonomous Region during the reference semester. PM_2.5 levels were lowered by 4.8 μg/m³ during the pandemic semester compared to the reference semester and PM_2.5 levels during subperiod 2 decreased most, by 18%. The southeast region was affected most by the COVID-19 outbreak with PM_2.5 levels during subperiod 2 decreasing by 31%, followed by the Northern Yangtze River Delta (29%) and Pearl River Delta (24%).

SUBMITTER: Li Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8452231 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Predicting long-term spatiotemporal characteristics of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is important in China to understand historical levels of PM2.5, to support health effects research of both long-term and short-term exposures to PM2.5, and to evaluate the efficacy of air pollution control policies. Satellite-retrieved aerosol optical depth (AOD) provides a unique opportunity to characterize the long-term trends of ground-level PM2.5 at high spatial resolution. However, the missing rate of AOD in Northeastern China (NEC) is very high, especially in winter, and challenges the accuracy of long-term predictions of PM2.5 if left unresolved. Using random forest algorithms, this study developed a gap-filling approach combing satellite AOD, meteorological data, land use parameters, population and visibility in the NEC during 2005-2016. The model, including all predictors, combined with a model without AOD was able to fill the gap of PM2.5 predictions caused by missing AOD at 1-km resolution. The R2 (RMSE) of the full-coverage predictions was 0.81 (18.5 μg/m3) at the daily level. Gap-filled PM2.5 predictions on days with missing AOD reduced the relative prediction error from 28% to 2.5% in winter. The leave-one-year-out-cross-validation R2 (RMSE) of the full-coverage predictions was 0.65 (16.3 μg/m3) at the monthly level, indicating relatively high accuracy of predicted historical PM2.5 concentrations. Our results suggested that AOD helped increase the reliability of historical PM2.5 prediction when ground PM2.5 measurements were unavailable, even though predictions from the AOD model only accounted for approximate 37% of the whole dataset. Predicted PM2.5 level in NEC have increased since 2005, reached its peak during 2013-2015, then saw a major decline in 2016. Our high-resolution predictions also showed a south to north gradient and many pollution hot spots in the city clusters surrounding provincial capitals, as well as within large cities. Overall, by combining predictions from the AOD model with higher accuracy and predictions from the non-AOD model to achieve full coverage, our modeling approach could produce long-term, full-coverage historical PM2.5 levels in high-latitude areas in China, despite the widespread and persistent AOD missingness.

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Estimating the Impact of COVID-19 on the PM_2.5 Levels in China with a Satellite-Driven Machine Learning Model.

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Dataset Information

Estimating the Impact of COVID-19 on the PM2.5 Levels in China with a Satellite-Driven Machine Learning Model.

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OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets

Estimating the Impact of COVID-19 on the PM_2.5 Levels in China with a Satellite-Driven Machine Learning Model.