Medium-term Air Quality Benchmarking for Ecosystem Monitoring and Sustainability Planning: Case Study Dallas County (U.S.A.) 2015 to 2020

Medium-term air quality assessment,benchmarking it to recent past data can usefully complement short-term air quality index data for monitoring purposes.By using daily and monthly averaged data,medium-term air quality benchmarking provides a distinctive perspective with which to monitor air quality for sustainability planning and ecosystem perspectives.By normalizing the data for individual air pollutants to a standard scale they can be more easily integrated to generate a daily combined local area benchmark(CLAB).The objectives of the study are to demonstrate that medium-term air quality benchmarking can be tailored to reflect local conditions by selecting the most relevant pollutants to incorporate in the CLAB indicator.Such a benchmark can provide an overall air quality assessment for areas of interest.A case study is presented for Dallas County(U.S.A.)applying the proposed method by benchmarking 2020 data for air pollutants to their trends established for 2015 to 2019.Six air pollutants considered are:ozone,carbon monoxide,nitrogen dioxide,sulfur dioxide,benzene and particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres.These pollutants are assessed individually and in terms of CLAB,and their 2020 variations for Dallas County compared to daily trends established for years 2015 to 2019.Reductions in benzene and carbon monoxide during much of 2020 are clearly discernible compared to preceding years.The CLAB indicator shows clear seasonal trends for air quality for 2015 to 2019 with high pollution in winter and spring compared to other seasons that is strongly influenced by climatic variations with some anthropogenic inputs.Conducting CLAB analysis on an ongoing basis,using a relevant near-past time interval for benchmarking that covers several years,can reveal useful monthly,seasonal and annual trends in overall air quality.This type of medium-term,benchmarked air quality data analysis is well suited for ecosystem monitoring.

Developing chemical signatures of particulate air pollution in the Pearl River Delta region, China

PM 2.5 samples were collected in a regional sampling network with three sites in Hong Kong and four sites in the adjacent inland Pearl River Delta （PRD） or Guangdong Province during four months/seasons from 2002–2003. Trans-boundary transport between Hong Kong and the inland PRD is inevitable under the influence of Asian monsoon. In summer, Hong Kong serves as the upwind site of the inland PRD while during other seasons it is under the influence of continental emissions. Previous studies have recognized the importance of using chemical signatures to differentiate local vs. regional contributions to air pollutants in Hong Kong such as the CO/NOx ratio, ratios of different VOC species. In this study, detailed chemical speciation by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was performed with PM 2.5 samples to identify new chemical signatures to distinguish aerosols in Hong Kong from those from the inland PRD. Since Hong Kong is not influenced by the continental emissions from the inland PRD during summer, comparison focused on chemical data obtained from this season for chemical signatures. The new ratios developed from the current study include LCPI/HCPI ratio of alkanes （0.39 ± 0.02 in Hong Kong vs. 0.78 ± 0.08 in the inland PRD）, pyrene to benzo[ghi]perylene ratio （0.97 ± 0.21 in Hong Kong compared to 0.20 ± 0.06 in the inland PRD）, and the ratio of 1,2-benzenedioic acid to 1,4-benzenedioic acid （1.8 ± 0.1 in Hong Kong vs. 0.6 ± 0.05 in the inland PRD）. Results from this study also revealed that Hong Kong was impacted by ship emissions as reflected by substantially high V/Ni ratio （9 ± 2） while this ratio was about 1–2 at all sites in the inland PRD, which is very close to typical ratios from residual oil combustion.

City level CO_(2) and local air pollutants co-control performance evaluation: A case study of 113 key envir on mental protection cities in China

‘Co-control',or synergistically reducing CO_(2)and local air polluta nt emissions,is an important strategy for cities to achieve'low carb on'and'blue sky'simultaneously.However,there were few studies to evaluate and compare the level of co-control of CO_(2) and local air pollutants in cities year.The present study proposed qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the level of co-control of CO_(2)and three local air pollutant(SO_(2).NOX,and particulate matter PM)emissions in key environmental protection cities in China over two periods(2012-2015 and 2015-2018).Statistical analysis found that,though three local air pollutant emissions positively correlated with CO_(2) emission,no significantly positive correlation was found between local air pollutants emission reductions and CO_(2) emission reductions,indicating that co-control effects were poor in general.By using the co-control effect coordinate system,qualitative evaluation showed that less than half of the sample cities could achieve co-control of the total amount of CO_(2) and local air pollutants.By employing the indicator of emission reduction equivalence(EReq),quantitative evaluation showed that the co-control level of the sample cities improved in 2015-2018 compared with 2012-2015.Further regression analysis showed that,reducing coal consumption and economic development significantly enhanced the co-control performance of the observed cities.The present case study proved that the proposed methods for evaluation and comparison of the city co-control performance works well,and can be used in other countries and regions to promote global cities racing to carbon and local air pollutants co-control.

Synergy between Virtual Local Air Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases Emissions Embodied in China's International Trade

Increasing pressure from the international community to reduce carbon emissions, coupled with the need to reduce domestic air pollutants, is forcing China to deal with both sources of emissions. Air pollutants and greenhouse gases are closely linked via their common source, fossil fuels. As a result of globalization, large portions of these emissions are associated with trade. This study uses data from the World Input-Output Database（WIOD）, including 27 EU countries and 13 major countries, covering the period from 2000 to 2009, and applies MRIO（Multiregional input-output） to estimate emissions embodied in China＇s international trade. We focus on the synergy between LAPs（local air pollutants） and GHG consumption-based emissions, and the relationship between virtual LAPs and virtual GHGs associated with China＇s international trade from 2000 to 2009. The results indicate that a strong synergistic relationship exists and that air pollutant control can serve as an endogenous mechanism to mitigating greenhouse gases. Thanks to domestic actions to control air pollutants, every ton reduction of LAP emissions related to export can save 27.1 tons of GHG emissions in 2005 over emissions efficiency levels, and can save 32.4 tons of GHG emissions in 2009 over 2005. Mitigation actions taken to reduce air pollutants could also reduce GHG emissions.