Analysis of the COVID-19 Lockdown’s Impact on Air Quality in the Larger Cities of Spain

Edgar Lorenzo-Sáez, Eloína Coll-Aliaga, Jose-Vicente Oliver-Villanueva, Fernando Prieto del Campo and Victoria Lerma-Arce
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Edgar Lorenzo-Sáez: ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Eloína Coll-Aliaga: ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Jose-Vicente Oliver-Villanueva: ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Fernando Prieto del Campo: Observatorio de la Sostenibilidad, 28801 Madrid, Spain
Victoria Lerma-Arce: ITACA Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-9

Abstract: During the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the air quality reached the best levels to be recorded in large cities in Spain. To analyze and demonstrate this improvement in air quality levels, the evolution of the average nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) levels in 78 Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants during the pre-COVID-19 years (2017–2019), the period of the COVID-19 lockdown, and the post-COVID-19 year (2021) was analyzed. The results show an improvement in the air quality in most of the cities analyzed for 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. In addition, in 2021, without the COVID-19 restrictions, the air quality levels of the largest cities in Spain showed important improvements in terms of NO 2 concentration compared to the levels in the pre-COVID-19 years (2017–2019). Nevertheless, in 2021, only 11 cities were below the average annual limit of 10 µg/m 3 NO 2 established by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, no cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants achieved NO 2 levels below the WHO limit. Finally, a detailed monthly analysis indicated that the pre-COVID-19 levels were reached again during the last months of the monitored period.

Keywords: air quality monitoring; COVID-19 impact; NO 2; urban air quality; air pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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