Assessment of the Effect of the Three-Year Action Plan to Fight Air Pollution on Air Quality and Associated Health Benefits in Sichuan Basin, China

Abstract

To continuously improve air quality, after implementation of the “Clean Air Action Plan, 2013–2017” (CAAP), the “Three-year Action Plan to Fight Air Pollution” (TYP) was further conducted from 2018 to 2020. However, the effectiveness of the TYP remains unclear in one of the major city-clusters of China, the Sichuan Basin. In this study, the bottom-up method was used to quantify the emission reduction during TYP based on the emissions inventory in Sichuan Basin in 2017 and the air pollution control measures adopted from 2018 to 2020 in each city. The reduction of PM2.5 concentration and the avoided premature deaths due to implementation of air pollution control measures were assessed by using an integrated meteorology and air quality modeling system and a concentration-response algorithm. Emissions of SO2, NOx, PM2.5, and VOCs in the Sichuan Basin have been reduced by 42.6, 105.2, 40.2, and 136.6 Gg, respectively. The control of non-electricity industry contributed significantly to the emission reduction of all pollutants, accounting for 26–49%. In addition, the control of mobile sources contributes the most to NOx reductions, accounting for 57%. The results illustrate that the focus of air pollution control in Sichuan Basin is still industrial sources. We also found that the emission reduction of NOx, PM2.5, and VOCs in Chengdu is significantly higher than that of other cities, which were about 3.4~15.4 times, 2.2~40.1 times, and 4.3~24.4 times that of other cities, respectively. In Sichuan Basin, the average reduction rate of PM2.5 concentration due to air pollution control measures was 5% on average, with the highest contributions from industry, mobile source, and dust emission control. The decrease rate in each city ranges between 1~10%, and the decreasing ratios in Dazhou (10%), Chengdu (8%), and Zigong (7%) are relatively higher. The number of premature deaths avoided due to air pollution control measures in Sichuan Basin is estimated to be 22,934. Chengdu and Dazhou have benefitted most from the air pollution control measures, with 6043 and 2713 premature deaths avoided, respectively. Our results indicate that the implementation of TYP has achieved remarkable environmental and health benefits.

Coordination Relationship of Carbon Emissions and Air Pollutants under Governance Measures in a Typical Industrial City in China

“…The RMSE statistical values range from approximately 0 µg/m 3 to 50 µg/m 3 . Notably, the bias statistical values for NO 2 and CO are around ±6 µg/m 3 , indicating a high level of trustworthiness in the simulated values [47]. However, the bias statistical values for SO 2 and O 3 in January and April are relatively unstable.…”

“…In this study, we compared the air pollutant concentrations measured at typical air quality monitoring stations in Yibin City in 2021 with the corresponding hourly average pollutant concentrations simulated by the CMAQ model to verify the reliability of the modeling results (Table 2). The statistical indices used include root-mean-square error (RMSE) and bias [43][44][45][46][47]. The RMSE statistical values range from approximately 0 µg/m 3 to 50 µg/m 3 .…”

“…However, the bias statistical values for SO 2 and O 3 in January and April are relatively unstable. Combined with the underestimation of particulate matter, this is related to the depreciation of precursor emission source inventory and the overestimation of wind speed under static wind conditions, especially wind speed, which is the main parameter affecting the accuracy of simulation results [47][48][49]. Overall, the model is relatively reliable and can be used to evaluate the environmental benefits of emission reduction from subsequent measures.…”

Changes in NO3 Radical and Its Nocturnal Chemistry in Shanghai From 2014 to 2021 Revealed by Long‐Term Observation and a Stacking Model: Impact of China's Clean Air Action Plan

“…With the great efforts on air quality improvement in China via a series of national actions since 2013, for example, the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (2013–2017) and the Three‐Year Action Plan to Fight Air Pollution (2018–2021), numerous reports with long‐term data sets have shown that PM 2.5 pollution has been effectively mitigated, with the national annual average PM 2.5 concentration dropping to 33 μg m −3 in 2020, but O 3 pollution presented a rapidly rising and spreading trend (J. Chen et al., 2021; S. Chen et al., 2020; Feng et al., 2019; Geng et al., 2019; Jiang et al., 2021). Previously only a few assessments of long‐term NO 3 radical have been performed, however, the use of high‐performance machine learning models provides the opportunity to estimate the long‐term NO 3 mixing ratio variability.…”