A Modeling Study of the Impact of Crop Residue Burning on PM2.5 Concentration in Beijing and Tianjin during a Severe Autumn Haze Event

Abstract

Crop residue burning is one of the important types of biomass burning in China and has potentially important effect on air quality and climate. A coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model (WRF-Chem) with ground and satellite observations and biomass burning emission inventory were applied to investigate the spatial/temporal distribution and transport pathways of air pollutants and to quantify the contribution of crop residue burning to aerosol concentration in the North China Plain, with focus on Beijing and Tianjin during a severe haze episode on 7-11 October 2014, when the daily mean surface PM 2.5 concentration in Beijing reached 317 µg m -3 . During this period, intensive crop fires were detected over wide areas of eastern Henan, southern Hebei and western Shandong, and the crop residue burning emission was much larger than anthropogenic emission in major fire areas. Model comparison with ground observations demonstrated the WRF-Chem was able to generally reproduce surface meteorological variables and PM 2.5 concentration, although it tended to overpredict wind speed and aerosol concentration in some locations. Taking crop residue burning into account can apparently improve PM 2.5 prediction during the haze episode. The stagnant weather condition favored haze formation and maintenance in this region, and crop residue burning intensified haze pollution in both fire source and downwind regions. The crop residue burning emission on average contributed 19% to surface PM 2.5 concentration in Beijing during the haze episode, in which it contributed 40% and 29% to organic carbon aerosol and primary PM 2.5 , respectively, and less to black carbon aerosol (4.9%). The impact of crop residue burning in Tianjin was smaller than that in Beijing, with an average contribution of 7.4% due to different fire sources and transport pathways.

Environmental and political implications of underestimated cropland burning in Ukraine

“…For instance, within areas with excessive crop residue burning there are numerous examples in the scientific literature highlighting the impacts of open burning on local air quality and human health issues [e.g. 14 – 17 ], decreased soil health and crop yields [e.g. 18 – 20 ], and damages from out of control burns [e.g.…”

How a price‐support policy can hurt the environment: Empirical evidence from Northeast China

“…Increased straw resulted in increased burning and the resulting consequence to the environment is a net pollution increase equivalent to 16.03%, 0.33%, and 3.64% of the smoke and dust, $${\mathrm{SO}}_2$$, and $${\mathrm{NO}}_{\mathrm{X}}$$, respectively, from the industrial sector in the treatment provinces. Air pollutants emitted through in‐situ straw burning during harvest periods have been some of the main causes of extreme weather events such as severe haze incidents in recent years (Zhou et al., 2016; Zhu et al., 2010). The accumulation of toxic and harmful gases also threatens the environment and resident health in nearby regions (Arceo et al., 2016; Lai et al., 2022).…”

Relative effects of open biomass and crop straw burning on haze formation over central and eastern China: modelling study driven by constrained emissions

“…Other types of OBB emissions mainly occurred in Anhui (29 %), Zhejiang (28 %) and Jiangxi (14 %). It should be pointed out that OBB emissions mainly associated with OCSB 270 estimated in the original FINNv1.5 were projected to be substantially underestimated due to a variety of satellite-based limitations, such as unresolved small and ephemeral agricultural fires, occlusion effects of prevalent cloud cover, or discontinuous time spans (Streets et al, 2003;Wiedinmyer et al, 2011;Randerson et al, 2012;Zhou et al, 2018;Uranishi et al, 2019) .…”