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Mitigation of severe urban haze pollution by a precision air pollution control approach
Citation:
Yu, S., P. Li, L. Wang, Y. Wu, S. Wang, K. Liu, T. Zhu, Y. Zhang, M. Hu, L. Zeng, X. Zhang, J. Cao, Kiran Alapaty, David-C Wong, R. Mathur, D. Rosenfeld, AND J. Seinfeld. Mitigation of severe urban haze pollution by a precision air pollution control approach. Scientific Reports. Nature Publishing Group, London, Uk, 8:8151, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26344-1
Impact/Purpose:
China’s unprecedented urbanization has been accompanied by an increase in the level of air pollution (both indoor and outdoor), which has been estimated to lead to 2.5 million premature deaths annually1–4. To tackle the increased threat owing to the growth of regional air pollution, in 2010 the State Council of China issued the circular, “Regional Joint Prevention and Control of Air Pollution”, to enhance the effort in regional environmental protection and reduction of the overall emissions of air pollutants5. Here we introduce and evaluate a novel precision air pollution control approach (PAPCA) to mitigate severe urban haze events.
Description:
Severe and persistent haze pollution involving fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations reaching unprecedentedly high levels across many cities in China poses a serious threat to human health. Although mandatory temporary cessation of most urban and surrounding emission sources is an effective, but costly, short-term measure to abate air pollution, development of long-term crisis response measures remains a challenge, especially for curbing severe urban haze events on a regular basis. Here we introduce and evaluate a novel precision air pollution control approach (PAPCA) to mitigate severe urban haze events. The approach involves combining predictions of high PM2.5 concentrations, with a hybrid trajectory-receptor model and a comprehensive 3-D atmospheric model, to pinpoint the origins of emissions leading to such events and to optimize emission controls. Results of the PAPCA application to five severe haze episodes in major urban areas in China suggest that this strategy has the potential to significantly mitigate severe urban haze by decreasing PM2.5 peak concentrations by more than 60% from above 300 g m-3 to below 100 g m-3, while requiring ~30% to 70% less emission controls as compared to complete emission reductions. The PAPCA strategy has the potential to tackle effectively severe urban haze pollution events with economic efficiency.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Mitigation of severe urban haze pollution by a precision air pollution control approach
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26344-1