Particulate Matter and Gaseous Pollutions in Three Metropolises along the Chinese Yangtze River: Situation and Implications

Mao Mao, Xiaolin Zhang and Yan Yin
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Mao Mao: Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education, Joint International Research Laboratory of Climate and Environment Change, Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Xiaolin Zhang: Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education, Joint International Research Laboratory of Climate and Environment Change, Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Yan Yin: Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education, Joint International Research Laboratory of Climate and Environment Change, Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-29

Abstract: The situation of criteria atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter and trace gases (SO 2 , NO 2 , CO and O 3 ), over three metropolises (Chongqing, Wuhan, and Nanjing), representing the upstream, midstream and downstream portions of the Yangtze River Basin from September 2015 to August 2016 were analyzed. The maximum annual mean PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations were 61.3 and 102.7 μg/m 3 in Wuhan, while highest annual average gaseous pollutions occurred in Nanjing, with 49.6 and 22.9 ppb for 8 h O 3 and NO 2 , respectively. Compared to a few years ago, SO 2 and CO mass concentrations have dropped to well below the qualification standards, and the O 3 and NO 2 concentrations basically meet the requirements though occasionally is still high. In contrary, about 13%, 25%, 22% for PM 2.5 , and 4%, 17%, 15% for PM 10 exceed the Chinese Ambient Air Quality Standard (CAAQS) Grade II. Particulate matter, especially PM 2.5 , is the most frequent major pollutant to poor air quality with 73%, 64% and 88% accounting for substandard days. Mean PM 2.5 concentrations on PM 2.5 episode days are 2–3 times greater than non-episode days. On the basis of calculation of PM 2.5 /PM 10 and PM 2.5 /CO ratios, the enhanced particulate matter pollution on episode days is closely related to secondary aerosol production. Except for O 3 , the remaining five pollutants exhibit analogous seasonal patterns, with the highest magnitude in winter and lowest in summer. The results of back trajectories show that air pollution displays synergistic effects on local emissions and long range transport. O 3 commonly demonstrated negative correlations with other pollutants, especially during winter, while moderate to strong positive correlation between particulate matter and NO 2 , SO 2 , CO were seen. Compared to pollutant substandard ratios over three megacities in eastern China (Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou), the situation in our studied second-tier cities are also severe. The results in this paper provide basic knowledge for pollution status of three cities along Chinese Yangtze River and are conductive to mitigating future negative air quality levels.

Keywords: fine particulate matter; trace gases; Yangtze River; metropolises (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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