Impact of mobility restrictions on NO2 concentrations in key Latin American cities during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Volke, Matias I; Río, R. Abarca del; Ulloa-Tesser, Claudia Alejandra

doi:10.1016/j.uclim.2023.101412

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…NO 2 : Many studies have shown that the reduction in economic activity during the COVID-19 lockdown mostly reduced NO 2 emissions (caused by fossil fuel combustion by vehicles and power plants) [56][57][58][59]. Some studies reported that the largest NO 2 emission reductions were in cities that introduced a shelter-in-place policy [60]. The dramatic reduction in the use of private cars and public transport vehicles during the lockdown led to an equally dramatic reduction in NO 2 emissions [61].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Air Pollution in Russia’s Largest Cities

et al. 2023

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Governments around the world took unprecedented measures, such as social distancing and the minimization of public/industrial activity, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This provided a unique chance to assess the relationships between key air pollutant emissions and track the reductions in these emissions in various countries during the lockdown. This study considers atmospheric air pollution in the 78 largest Russian cities (with populations over 250,000) in March–June of 2019–2021. This is the first such study for the largest cities in Russia. The initial data were the TROPOMI measurements (Sentinel-5P satellite) of such pollutants as carbon monoxide (CO), formaldehyde (HCHO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), which are the main anthropogenic pollutants. The data were downloaded from the Google Earth Engine’s cloud-based geospatial data platform. This provided L3-level information for subsequent analysis. The TROPOMI data indicated a decrease in the atmospheric content of the air pollutants in the largest Russian cities during the lockdown compared to the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The reduced economic activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic had the greatest impact on NO2 concentrations. The average reduction was −30.7%, while the maximum reduction was found within Moscow city limits that existed before 01.07.2012 (−41% with respect to the 2019 level). For sulfur dioxide, the average decrease was only 7%, with a further drop in 2021 (almost 20% relative to 2019). For formaldehyde and carbon monoxide, there were no reductions during the 2020 lockdown period (99.4% and 100.9%, respectively, with respect to 2019). The identified impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on NO2, SO2, HCHO, and CO NO2 concentrations in major Russian cities generally followed the patterns observed in other industrialized cities in China, India, Turkey, and European countries. The COVID-19 pandemic had a local impact on NO2 concentration reductions in major Russian cities. The differences leveled off over time, and the baseline pollution level for each pollutant was restored.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Air Pollution in Russia’s Largest Cities

et al. 2023

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“…Focusing on Spanish urban areas, some authors made direct comparisons between pollutant concentrations in the lockdown period vs. the pre-COVID-19 period in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona [10,12,[51][52][53][54]. At the international level, Gualtieri et al [58], among others, used the same methodology to analyse in detail the impacts of traffic reduction on air quality during the COVID-19 lockdown. In addition to these direct comparisons of air pollutant concentrations, statistical tests were conducted to compare concentrations in different periods; for instance, Alemdar et al (2021) [59] for Istanbul or Donzelli et al (2021) [60] for Valencia in Spain, who used Student's t-test for paired samples.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Mobility Restrictions on Air Pollution in the Madrid Region during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Periods

Bañuelos-Gimeno,

Sobrino,

Arce-Ruiz

2023

Sustainability

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Air quality is one of the problems cities face today. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to study the influence of traffic reduction on air quality during 2020, 2021, and 2022. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impacts and relationship between mobility restrictions in six COVID-19 wave periods and air pollution and evolution in the post-pandemic period differentiating Madrid city from its metropolitan area. We tested whether the changes produced for NO2, NOx, PM2.5, PM10, and O3 in the urban traffic and suburban traffic air quality stations data in comparison to the 2019 reference period were significant. The findings of this study show that the periods with the greatest reduction in pollutant concentrations were the first and third COVID-19 waves, when mobility restrictions were most stringent: there was strict confinement for the first wave (i.e., 47% reduction in daily average NO2 concentration), while severe weather forced a reduction in traffic in the region in the third wave period (i.e., 41% reduction in daily average NOx concentration). With the return to normal activity in the last period, pollutant concentrations began to exceed pre-pandemic levels. At the urban level, the reductions were more noticeable in relation to NO2 and NOx, while at the suburban level, changes were less prominent, except for the O3. The results are particularly inspiring for designing future mobility strategies for improving air quality in urban and metropolitan areas.

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Air quality monitoring in Ukraine during 2022 military conflict using Sentinel-5P imagery

Mehrabi,

Scaioni,

Previtali

2023

Air Qual Atmos Health

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Impact of mobility restrictions on NO2 concentrations in key Latin American cities during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 5 publications

References 86 publications

Evaluation of the Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Air Pollution in Russia’s Largest Cities

Evaluation of the Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Air Pollution in Russia’s Largest Cities

Effects of Mobility Restrictions on Air Pollution in the Madrid Region during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Periods

Air quality monitoring in Ukraine during 2022 military conflict using Sentinel-5P imagery

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