NO2 levels after the COVID-19 lockdown in Ecuador: A trade-off between environment and human health

Pacheco, Henry; Díaz-López, Stephanie; Castro, Emilio José Jarre; Pacheco, Henyerlin; Méndez, Williams; Zamora-Ledezma, Ezequiel

doi:10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100674

Cited by 53 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…SO 2 had relatively a lower reduction, while the concentrations of O 3 increased during the lockdown period. Pacheco et al [12] reported a maximum of 23% reduction in NO 2 concentrations in Ecuador. Rodríguez-Urrego and Rodríguez-Urrego [13] in a global study of PM 2.5 in the most polluted cities, found an average reduction of 12% in PM 2.5 concentrations, while reporting the highest reductions in Bogota and Kuwait City.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered catastrophic impacts on human life, but at the same time demonstrated positive impacts on air quality. In this study, the impact of COVID-19 lockdown interventions on five major air pollutants during the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods is analysed in three urban areas in Northern England: Leeds, Sheffield, and Manchester. A Generalised Additive Model (GAM) was implemented to eliminate the effects of meteorological factors from air quality to understand the variations in air pollutant levels exclusively caused by reductions in emissions. Comparison of lockdown with pre-lockdown period exhibited noticeable reductions in concentrations of NO (56.68–74.16%), NO2 (18.06–47.15%), and NOx (35.81–56.52%) for measured data. However, PM10 and PM2.5 levels demonstrated positive gain during lockdown ranging from 21.96–62.00% and 36.24–80.31%, respectively. Comparison of lockdown period with the equivalent period in 2019 also showed reductions in air pollutant concentrations, ranging 43.31–69.75% for NO, 41.52–62.99% for NOx, 37.13–55.54% for NO2, 2.36–19.02% for PM10, and 29.93–40.26% for PM2.5. Back trajectory analysis was performed to show the air mass origin during the pre-lockdown and lockdown periods. Further, the analysis showed a positive association of mobility data with gaseous pollutants and a negative correlation with particulate matter.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They also found that the global response to COVID-19 led to a sudden reduction in both greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. Pacheco et al (2020) reported that air quality in Ecuador was greatly improved during lockdown with a 23% decrement in the NO 2 concentration. This trend of increasing air quality was also found in Lima, Peru (Velásquez and Lara, 2020), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ( Nakada and Urban, 2020 ) Almaty, Kazakhstan ( Kerimray et al, 2020 ), and in four Southern European cities (Nice, Rome, Valencia, and Turin; Sicard et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global, continental, and national variation in PM2.5, O3, and NO2 concentrations during the early 2020 COVID-19 lockdown

Hong

Zhang

et al. 2021

Atmospheric Pollution Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lockdowns implemented in response to COVID-19 have caused an unprecedented reduction in global economic and transport activity. In this study, variation in the concentration of health-threatening air pollutants (PM 2.5 , NO 2 , and O 3 ) pre- and post-lockdown was investigated at global, continental, and national scales. We analyzed ground-based data from >10,000 monitoring stations in 380 cities across the globe. Global-scale results during lockdown (March to May 2020) showed that concentrations of PM 2.5 and NO 2 decreased by 16.1% and 45.8%, respectively, compared to the baseline period (2015–2019). However, O 3 concentration increased by 5.4%. At the continental scale, concentrations of PM 2.5 and NO 2 substantially dropped in 2020 across all continents during lockdown compared to the baseline, with a maximum reduction of 20.4% for PM 2.5 in East Asia and 42.5% for NO 2 in Europe. The maximum reduction in O 3 was observed in North America (7.8%), followed by Asia (0.7%), while small increases were found in other continents. At the national scale, PM 2.5 and NO 2 concentrations decreased significantly during lockdown, but O 3 concentration showed varying patterns among countries. We found maximum reductions of 50.8% for PM 2.5 in India and 103.5% for NO 2 in Spain. The maximum reduction in O 3 (22.5%) was found in India. Improvements in air quality were temporary as pollution levels increased in cities since lockdowns were lifted. We posit that these unprecedented changes in air pollutants were mainly attributable to reductions in traffic and industrial activities. Column reductions could also be explained by meteorological variability and a decline in emissions caused by environmental policy regulations. Our results have implications for the continued implementation of strict air quality policies and emission control strategies to improve environmental and human health.

show abstract

“…On the other hand, the pandemic has resulted in a drastic reduction in global economic activities due to the health policies, physical distancing measures and mobility restrictions implemented worldwide. Quarantines have been applied in countries in all continents as a strategy to minimize the virus transmission rates, and an improvement in local air quality has been reported as a side effect in China (Pei et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020), India (Sharma et al, 2020;Shehzad et al, 2020), Europe (Menut et al, 2020), the United States (Chen et al, 2020a), Brazil (Dantas et al, 2020;Nakada and Urban, 2020), Ecuador (Cazorla et al, 2020;Pacheco et al, 2020), and many others, with significant reductions in the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10, carbon monoxide (CO) and NO2. These improvements implied a short-term…”

Section: Accepted Manuscript 1 Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of COVID-19 Lockdowns on the Air Pollution of Urban Areas of Central and Southern Chile

Morales-Solís

Ahumada

Rojas

et al. 2021

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present the effects of the confinement and physical distancing policies applied during the COVID-19 pandemic on the concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO, NO2 and O3 in 16 cities in central and southern Chile. The period between March and May in 2020 was compared with the corresponding months during 2017-2019, using surface data and satellite information. The relative percent changes in the concentration of atmospheric pollutants, and the meteorological variables observed between these two periods were used to quantify the effects of the lockdowns on the local air quality of the urban areas studied. The results showed statistically significant changes in 11 of the 16 cities. Significant relative changes between +14% and -33% were observed for PM10 in 9 cities; while statistically significant changes between -6% and -48% were evident for PM2.5 in 10 cities. Significant decreases between -27% and -55%, were observed in 4 cities in which NO2 data were available; while significant increases in O3, between 18% and 43%, were found in 4 of the 5 cities with available data. The local meteorological variables did not show significant changes between both periods. In all the cities studied, one of the main PM sources is wood burning for residential heating. Although the quarantine imposed during the health emergency could have induced an increase in residential emissions, these were compensated with the reductions in vehicular and/or industrial emissions. Therefore, these results should be carefully interpreted and should inspire new research considering the social, cultural, and economic factors that could alter the common emission patterns and air quality of urban centers.

show abstract

NO2 levels after the COVID-19 lockdown in Ecuador: A trade-off between environment and human health

Cited by 53 publications

References 33 publications

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

Changes in Air Quality Associated with Mobility Trends and Meteorological Conditions during COVID-19 Lockdown in Northern England, UK

Global, continental, and national variation in PM2.5, O3, and NO2 concentrations during the early 2020 COVID-19 lockdown

The Effect of COVID-19 Lockdowns on the Air Pollution of Urban Areas of Central and Southern Chile

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About