Material dependence of cities and implications for regional sustainability

Cities rely on massive amounts of physical,chemical,and biological resources to support their growth and metabolism.These‘metabolic inputs’are accumulated in cities to form material stocks in buildings,infrastructures,transportation facilities,and household appliances.This study takes China’s urbanization as an example to illustrate the characteristics of material stock changes in developing countries and compare them with those in developed countries.Results show that(1)material stocks have been growing in China,but have saturated in developed countries,and(2)the major components of urban metabolism are construction and industrial materials(e.g.,steel)in developing countries but biomass(e.g.,food)in developed countries.The changes in the magnitude and types of material stocks can not only measure urban development but also directly link city and its residents,offering advantages in representing urbanization over the existing indices such as population,land use,or gross domestic product(GDP).Given the new insights provided by material stock,we recommend to embrace it as a critical index of urbanization for guiding urban planning and policy-making.

Strong ozone production at a rural site in the North China Plain: Mixed effects of urban plumes and biogenic emissions

Regional ozone （O3） pollution has drawn increasing attention in China over the recent decade, but the contributions from urban pollution and biogenic emissions have not been clearly elucidated. To better understand the formation of the regional O3 problem in the North China Plain （NCP）, intensive field measurements of O3 and related parameters were conducted at a rural site downwind of Ji＇nan, the capital city of Shandong province, in the summer of 2013. Markedly severe 03 pollution was recorded, with the 03 mixing ratios exceeding the Chinese national ambient air quality standard on 28 days （a frequency of 78%） and with a maximum hourly value of 198 ppbv. Extensive regional transport of well-processed urban plumes to the site was identified. An observation-constrained chemical box model was deployed to evaluate in situ photochemical O3 production on two episodes. The results show that the in situ formation accounted for approximately 46% of the observed O3 accumulation, while the remainder （54%） was contributed by regional transport of the O3-laden urban plumes. The in situ ozone production was in a mixed controlled regime that reducing either NOx or VOCs would lead to a reduction of ozone formation. Biogenic VOCs played an important role in the local ozone formation. This study demonstrates the significant mixed effects of both anthropogenic pollution from urban zones and biogenic emission in rural areas on the regional 03 pollution in the NCP region, and may have general applicability in facilitating the understanding of the formation of secondary pollution over China.

Characterization of peroxyacetyl nitrate(PAN)under different PM_(2.5) concentration in wintertime at a North China rural site

As a secondary pollutant of photochemical pollution,peroxyacetyl nitrate(PAN)has attracted a close attention.A four-month campaign was conducted at a rural site in North China Plain(NCP)including the measurement of PAN,O_(3),NO_(x),PM_(2.5),oxygenated volatile organic compounds(OVOCs),photolysis rate constants of NO_(2)and O_(3)and meteorological parameters to investigate the wintertime characterization of photochemistry from November 2018 to February 2019.The results showed that the maximum and mean values of PAN were 4.38 and 0.93±0.67 ppbv during the campaign,respectively.The PAN under different PM_(2.5)concentrations from below 75μg/m^(3)up to 250μg/m^(3),showed different diurnal variation and formation rate.In the PM_(2.5)concentration range of above 250μg/m^(3),PAN had the largest daily mean value of 0.64 ppbv and the fastest production rate of 0.33 ppbv/hr.From the perspective of PAN’s production mechanism,the light intensity and precursors concentrations under different PM_(2.5)pollution levels indicated that there were sufficient light intensity and high volatile organic compounds(VOCs)and NO_(x)precursors concentration even under severe pollution level to generate a large amount of PAN.Moreover,the bimodal staggering phenomenon of PAN and PM_(2.5)provided a basis that PAN might aggravate haze through secondary organic aerosols(SOA)formation.