Emission Inventories and Particulate Matter Air Quality Modeling over the Pearl River Delta Region

Diogo Lopes, Joana Ferreira, Ka In Hoi, Ka-Veng Yuen, Kai Meng Mok and Ana I. Miranda
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Diogo Lopes: Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Joana Ferreira: Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Ka In Hoi: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau, China
Ka-Veng Yuen: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau, China
Kai Meng Mok: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau, China
Ana I. Miranda: Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: The Pearl River Delta (PRD) region is located on the southeast coast of mainland China and it is an important economic hub. The high levels of particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere, however, and poor visibility have become a complex environmental problem for the region. Air quality modeling systems are useful to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of air pollution, making use of atmospheric emission data as inputs. Over the years, several atmospheric emission inventories have been developed for the Asia region. The main purpose of this work is to evaluate the performance of the air quality modeling system for simulating PM concentrations over the PRD using three atmospheric emission inventories (i.e., EDGAR, REAS and MIX) during a winter and a summer period. In general, there is a tendency to underestimate PM levels, but results based on the EDGAR emission inventory show slightly better accuracy. However, improvements in the spatial and temporal disaggregation of emissions are still needed to properly represent PRD air quality. This study’s comparison of the three emission inventories’ data, as well as their PM simulating outcomes, generates recommendations for future improvements to atmospheric emission inventories and our understanding of air pollution problems in the PRD region.

Keywords: Pearl River Delta; particulate matter; gridded emission inventories; WRF-CAMx (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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