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Volta M, Giostra U, Guariso G, Baldasano J, Lutz M, Kerschbaumer A, Rauterberg-Wulff A, Ferreira F, Mendes L, Monjardino J, Moussiopοulos N, Vlachokostas C, Viaene P, Stijn J, Turrini E, De Angelis E, Carnevale C, Williams ML, Maione M. The greatest air quality experiment ever: Policy suggestions from the COVID-19 lockdown in twelve European cities. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0277428. [PMID: 36449530 PMCID: PMC9710802 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) hit Europe in January 2020. By March, Europe was the active centre of the pandemic. As a result, widespread "lockdown" measures were enforced across the various European countries, even if to a different extent. Such actions caused a dramatic reduction, especially in road traffic. This event can be considered the most significant experiment ever conducted in Europe to assess the impact of a massive switch-off of atmospheric pollutant sources. In this study, we focus on in situ concentration data of the main atmospheric pollutants measured in twelve European cities, characterized by different climatology, emission sources, and strengths. We propose a methodology for the fair comparison of the impact of lockdown measures considering the non-stationarity of meteorological conditions and emissions, which are progressively declining due to the adoption of stricter air quality measures. The analysis of these unmatched circumstances allowed us to estimate the impact of a nearly zero-emission urban transport scenario on air quality in 12 European cities. The clearest result, common to all the cities, is that a dramatic traffic reduction effectively reduces NO2 concentrations. In contrast, each city's PM and ozone concentrations can respond differently to the same type of emission reduction measure. From the policy point of view, these findings suggest that measures targeting urban traffic alone may not be the only effective option for improving air quality in cities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marialuisa Volta
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Civile, Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Umberto Giostra
- Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate, Università di Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy
| | - Giorgio Guariso
- Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
| | - Jose Baldasano
- Centro Nacional de Supercomputación, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Martin Lutz
- Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Mobilität, Verbraucher-und Klimaschutz, Berlin, Germany
| | - Andreas Kerschbaumer
- Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Mobilität, Verbraucher-und Klimaschutz, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Francisco Ferreira
- Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente, Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal
| | - Luìsa Mendes
- Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente, Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal
| | - Joana Monjardino
- Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente, Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal
| | | | | | | | | | - Enrico Turrini
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Civile, Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Elena De Angelis
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Civile, Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Claudio Carnevale
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Civile, Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | | | - Michela Maione
- Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate, Università di Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy
- Istituto di Scienze dell’Atmosfera e del Clima, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bologna, Italy
- * E-mail:
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Road Traffic and Its Influence on Urban Ammonia Concentrations (France). ATMOSPHERE 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos13071032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Ammonia (NH3) is an unregulated atmospheric gaseous pollutant in ambient air, involved in the formation of fine particles. Ammonia is therefore a major precursor of particulate matter (PM), the health effects of which have been widely demonstrated. NH3 emissions are clearly dominated by the agricultural sector (livestock and fertilizers), but other sources may also be important and less studied, such as road traffic with the increased use of catalytic converters in vehicles. This study is based on a long-term real-time measurements campaign (December 2019–September 2021) on two urban sites: a background site and a roadside site in the same agglomeration in France. The study of historical measurements at the background site clearly demonstrated the dominance of agriculture on the ammonia concentrations. This influence was also observed at both sites during the measurement campaign. The annual and monthly averages obtained in the study were similar to previous ones, with concentrations between 1–10 µg/m3 at both sites, indicating lower levels than previous studies for the roadside site. The ammonia levels measured during the campaign at the traffic site were significantly higher than those measured at the background site, highlighting the road traffic influence on ammonia in urban area. The biomass burning influence also seemed to be observed during this long measurement campaign at the agglomeration scale. The influences of road traffic and biomass burning on ammonia concentration remain small compared to agriculture.
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Petrus M, Popa C, Bratu AM. Ammonia Concentration in Ambient Air in a Peri-Urban Area Using a Laser Photoacoustic Spectroscopy Detector. MATERIALS 2022; 15:ma15093182. [PMID: 35591515 PMCID: PMC9101576 DOI: 10.3390/ma15093182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Revised: 04/08/2022] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/10/2022]
Abstract
Measuring ammonia from the environmental air is a sensitive and prioritized issue due to its harmful effects on humans, ecosystems, and climate. Ammonia is an environmental pollutant that has an important role in forming secondary inorganic aerosols, the main component of fine particulate matter concentrations in the urban atmosphere. Through this study, we present a gas analyzer that utilizes the technique of laser photoacoustic spectroscopy to measure ammonia concentration in three different sites located in Magurele, (44°20'58″ N 26°01'47″ E, 93 m altitude), Romania, from March to August 2021 at the breathing level of 1.5 m above ground. The ammonia concentrations from the ambient air were elevated in summer (mean of 46.03 ± 8.05 ppb (parts per billion)) compared to those measured in spring (18.62 ± 2.92 ppb), which means that atmospheric temperature affects ammonia concentrations. The highest mean ammonia concentrations occurred in August, with an ammonia concentration level of 100.68 ± 11.12 ppb, and the low mean ammonia concentrations occurred in March, with an ammonia level concentration of 0.161 ± 0.03 ppb. The results confirm that meteorological characteristics (i.e., temperature) and motor vehicles are major contributors to the elevated ammonia levels during the monitoring period.
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