Potential impacts of urban land expansion on Asian airborne pollutant outflows

Wei, Tao; Liu, Junfeng; Ban-Weiss, George; Zhang, Lin; Zhang, Jiachen; Yi, Kan; Tao, Shu

doi:10.1002/2016jd025564

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…To illustrate the impacts of EPT-current induced emissions reduction on air quality, we conduct additional model simulations using a well validated chemical transport model (WRF-Chem). The simulations are based on the latest available emission inventories of 2015 (Tao et al 2015(Tao et al , 2017. As shown in figure S139 in the supplementary information, the changes of regional concentrations of PM 2.5 and O 3 are largely proportional to their emissions reduction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of environmental protection tax on sectoral and spatial distribution of air pollution emissions in China

Sun

Liu

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Environmental problems, associated with climate change and air pollution, have become increasingly serious for China in recent years, which have aroused great domestic and international concerns. To mitigate these problems with great efforts, the Chinese government has implemented the Environmental Protection Tax Law in the whole country since the beginning of 2018. Although the new tax law is perceived as an aggressive policy that tends to establish a taxation system for promoting air pollution control, evaluations of its effectiveness are insufficient and urgently needed for China. Using a multiregion multisector Computable General Equilibrium model, we, for the first time, quantify the impacts of this 'pollution tax' policy on modulating air pollutants emissions. Our analysis shows that current tax policy is generally able to reduce many short-lived air pollutants emissions (e.g. SO 2 , NO X , TSP, PM 10 , PM 2.5 , CO, VOCs, OC, NH 3 and BC), but the significant effects only happen in regions with large economic scale (i.e. Guangdong, Shandong and Zhejiang provinces) and in sectors with high emission intensity (i.e. the electric power and nonmetal manufacturing sectors). However, at the national level, the overall effect of the current policy on air pollution mitigation is relatively small, less than 2% compared to a business-as-usual scenario. Large emission reduction potentials exist if the tax increases. Therefore, a more ambitious tax policy is urgently needed in order to achieve China's air pollution mitigation target of 2020. We also find that in China for implementing any pollution tax policies, the rate of decline in CO 2 emissions is much larger than those of short-lived pollutants, which indicates a huge co-benefit on global climate change mitigation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of environmental protection tax on sectoral and spatial distribution of air pollution emissions in China

Sun

Liu

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…3, respectively). In the CTRL scenario, emissf NH 3 has been set to 2 as recent studies using top-down inverse modeling (Van Damme et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018;Kong et al, 2019) and direct measurement (Wang et al, 2018) found that previous bottom-up inventories might underestimate the NH 3 emissions, and the MEIC inventory was estimated to underpredict NH 3 emissions by about 40 % over the North China Plain (Kong et al, 2019). As shown in Table S7 of the Supplement, compared to the scenario using the default MEIC emission data, the CTRL scenario (with doubled NH 3 emissions) better matches both the observed ammonia and ammonium concentrations at urban Beijing sites during wintertime (Meng et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2017;Song et al, 2018).…”

Section: Wrf-chem Model Configuration and Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerosol pH and chemical regimes of sulfate formation in aerosol water during winter haze in the North China Plain

Wei

Zheng

et al. 2020

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Understanding the mechanism of haze formation is crucial for the development of deliberate pollution control strategies. Multiphase chemical reactions in aerosol water have been suggested as an important source of particulate sulfate during severe haze (Cheng et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2016). While the key role of aerosol water has been commonly accepted, the relative importance of different oxidation pathways in the aqueous phase is still under debate mainly due to questions about aerosol pH. To investigate the spatiotemporal variability of aerosol pH and sulfate formation during winter in the North China Plain (NCP), we have developed a new aerosol water chemistry (AWAC) module for the WRF-Chem model (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry). Using the WRF-Chem-AWAC model, we performed a comprehensive survey of the atmospheric conditions characteristic for wintertime in the NCP focusing on January 2013. We find that aerosol pH exhibited a strong vertical gradient and distinct diurnal cycle which was closely associated with the spatiotemporal variation in the abundance of acidic and alkaline fine particle components and their gaseous counterparts. Over Beijing, the average aerosol pH at the surface layer was ∼5.4 and remained nearly constant around ∼5 up to ∼2 km above ground level; further aloft, the acidity rapidly increased to pH ∼0 at ∼3 km. The pattern of aerosol acidity increasing with altitude persisted over the NCP, while the specific levels and gradients of pH varied between different regions. In the region north of ∼41∘ N, the mean pH values at the surface level were typically greater than 6, and the main pathway of sulfate formation in aerosol water was S(IV) oxidation by ozone. South of ∼41∘ N, the mean pH values at the surface level were typically in the range of 4.4 to 5.7, and different chemical regimes and reaction pathways of sulfate formation prevailed in four different regions depending on reactant concentrations and atmospheric conditions. The NO2 reaction pathway prevailed in the megacity region of Beijing and the large area of Hebei Province to the south and west of Beijing, as well as part of Shandong Province. The transition metal ion (TMI) pathway dominated in the inland region to the west and the coastal regions to the east of Beijing, and the H2O2 pathway dominated in the region extending further south (Shandong and Henan provinces). In all of these regions, the O3 and TMI pathways in aerosol water, as well as the gas-particle partitioning of H2SO4 vapor, became more important with increasing altitude. Sensitivity tests show that the rapid production of sulfate in the NCP can be maintained over a wide range of aerosol acidity (e.g., pH =4.2–5.7) with transitions from dominant TMI pathway regimes to dominant NO2∕O3 pathway regimes.

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“…The UHIE can exacerbate challenges associated with high temperatures in urban areas including (a) human health impacts from extreme heat, 1 such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion rates, and premature deaths; (b) daily total and peak air conditioning energy use during summer; 2 and (c) increases in urban ozone concentrations and potential influences on other air pollutants. 3,4 Several important environmental processes, which are driven by the effects of urban land expansion on surface-atmosphere coupling, can aggravate or mitigate the UHIE. First, widespread application of materials with high solar absorptance (e.g., asphalt concrete and many roofing materials) in urban areas increases absorption of solar energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Comparison of the Influence of Cool Wall versus Cool Roof Adoption on Urban Climate in the Los Angeles Basin

Zhang

Mohegh

et al. 2018

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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This study for the first time assesses the influence of employing solar reflective "cool" walls on the urban energy budget and summertime climate of the Los Angeles basin. We systematically compare the effects of cool walls to cool roofs, a heat mitigation strategy that has been widely studied and employed, using a consistent modeling framework (the Weather Research and Forecasting model). Adoption of cool walls leads to increases in urban grid cell albedo that peak in the early morning and late afternoon, when the ratio of solar radiation onto vertical walls versus horizontal surfaces is at a maximum. In Los Angeles County, daily average increase in grid cell reflected solar radiation from increasing wall albedo by 0.80 is 9.1 W m, 43% of that for increasing roof albedo. Cool walls reduce canyon air temperatures in Los Angeles by 0.43 K (daily average), with the peak reduction (0.64 K) occurring at 09:00 LST and a secondary peak (0.53 K) at 18:00 LST. Per 0.10 wall (roof) albedo increase, cool walls (roofs) can reduce summertime daily average canyon air temperature by 0.05 K (0.06 K). Results reported here can be used to inform policies on urban heat island mitigation or climate change adaptation.

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Potential impacts of urban land expansion on Asian airborne pollutant outflows

Cited by 14 publications

References 86 publications

The impact of environmental protection tax on sectoral and spatial distribution of air pollution emissions in China

The impact of environmental protection tax on sectoral and spatial distribution of air pollution emissions in China

Aerosol pH and chemical regimes of sulfate formation in aerosol water during winter haze in the North China Plain

Systematic Comparison of the Influence of Cool Wall versus Cool Roof Adoption on Urban Climate in the Los Angeles Basin

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