Synergy between the Urban Heat Island and the Urban Pollution Island in Mexico City during the Dry Season

Méndez-Astudillo, Jorge; Caetano, Ernesto; Pereyra-Castro, Karla

doi:10.4209/aaqr.210278

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A refinery complex is located around 80 km to the northeast of the city center in Tula, Hidalgo. It contributes to air pollution in GMC via long-range transport of pollutants, mainly PM 10 [13,24]. Also, high winds cause erosion of dry soils, especially in rural areas during the dry season [12].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of weather, the GMC experiences middle-latitude systems during the dry season and is exposed to tropical interactions during the rainy season. The wet season lasts from June to November and the dry season is defined from December to May [13].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of urbanization, the layout of the GMC is heterogeneous, meaning that areas depending on land use or land cover are not well defined and they are rather mixed. In this study, we defined urban areas as areas with many built structures such as buildings and roads, rural areas are those with a few built structures and mostly vegetation cover, and semi-urban areas are defined as large green areas within an urban area, such as a large park near the city center [13].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…PM 2.5 and PM 10 affect the air quality during the rainy season when rain removes pollutants from the air. Bare soil and traffic-related conditions from February to May also contribute to the increasing concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Air Quality in Mexico City after Mayor Public Policy Intervention

Méndez-Astudillo¹,

Caetano²,

Pereyra-Castro³

2023

Environmental Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Air pollution can be produced from anthropogenic or natural sources. Most of the policies enacted to improve air quality focus on reducing anthropogenic sources of pollution, but if natural sources increase, then air quality does not improve with these policies. In this chapter, we first define the diurnal and monthly cycle of particulate matter and ozone concentration, depending on the weather, using data from air quality monitoring stations from Greater Mexico City. We then look at a mayor public policy intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic that drastically reduced anthropogenic sources of PM but did not reduce natural sources by doing robust trend analysis on air quality station data. We evaluate the effect of these interventions by looking at national air quality standards and the number of days air pollutants have been within recommended levels. The results show that during lockdown, air quality improved because less anthropogenic sources of PM were active. However, natural sources contributed to air pollution during that time.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Air Quality in Mexico City after Mayor Public Policy Intervention

Méndez-Astudillo¹,

Caetano²,

Pereyra-Castro³

2023

Environmental Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Satellite images have shown that there is a mayor aerosol source in Chalco, an open-air gravel pit, which stopped working in April and May 2020 as it was not considered an essential economic activity (Méndez-Astudillo et al 2022). The shift of AOD concentration towards Iztapalapa (purple circle in figure 2) can be explained because usually, people travel from Iztapalapa to other municipalities for work.…”

Section: Spatial Distribution Of Aerosol Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of COVID-19 lockdown impact on PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area

Méndez-Astudillo

2023

Rev. Int. Contam. Ambie.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are regularly monitored because they cause adverse effects on human health. The concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 vary within a city due to land use, the amount of traffic, and pollution sources. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, lockdowns were enacted to stop the spread of the virus. These lockdowns meant reduced mobility and the halt of certain economic activities which had an impact on air pollution sources. In this paper, we assess the effect of the lockdown enacted in April-May 2020 in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area on PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations, using statistical analysis tools. MODIS-derived aerosol optical depth is used to assess the change of aerosols spatial distribution during the lockdown. Furthermore, a Mann-Whitney test is applied to PM10 and PM2.5 data from ground-based monitoring stations to evaluate the effects of lockdown. A general reduction of 20 % of PM10 and 10 % in PM2.5 was found. Overall, a 15 % reduction in particulate matter was found in Mexico City due to lockdown.

show abstract

Assessment of the urban pollution island intensity in Rome (Italy) from in-situ PM measurements

Di Bernardino,

Erriu,

Argentini

et al. 2024

Bull. of Atmos. Sci.& Technol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Urban Pollution Island (UPI), describing the temporal and spatial distribution of pollutants’ concentration attributed to the presence of urban features and activities, is one of the major problems affecting urban areas and has become more severe with rapid urbanization. To correctly evaluate the UPI Intensity (UPII), i.e., the difference in pollution concentration between the urban agglomeration and its rural surroundings, it is crucial to carefully select rural and, above all, urban reference stations, as local factors such as orography, location of the air quality monitoring stations, and street orientation can significantly impact UPII values. In this work, the UPII in Rome (Italy) is determined using daily-averaged concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 collected by in-situ stations over the period 2018–2023. Three different methods for the assessment of UPII are tested and compared by varying the sub-set of selected urban stations, according to their environmental classification. The approach proposed will have significant implications on the management of urban environment and on the tailored design of urban air quality improvement strategies.Results show slight differences in the monthly-averaged concentrations of both PM10 and PM2.5 between the “urban traffic” and “urban background” stations, suggesting that the proximity of the emission sources to the monitoring stations moderately influences the concentrations, potentially due to limited ventilation within street canyons, which can inhibit mixing processes. The annual variation of UPII reveals that PM10 is more sensitive to the selection of the stations particularly during winter, when the differences between the three assessment methods reach 100%. Our findings also indicate that, in the case of Rome, using the largest number of stations available in the urban area could enhance the UPII evaluation, taking into consideration the urban structure and the specific characteristics of local emission sources. The results presented here, although related to a single city, demonstrate that the selection of urban stations for the evaluation of UPII is not straightforward and requires further investigation.

show abstract

Synergy between the Urban Heat Island and the Urban Pollution Island in Mexico City during the Dry Season

Cited by 7 publications

References 20 publications

Air Quality in Mexico City after Mayor Public Policy Intervention

Air Quality in Mexico City after Mayor Public Policy Intervention

Assessment of COVID-19 lockdown impact on PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area

Assessment of the urban pollution island intensity in Rome (Italy) from in-situ PM measurements

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About