Does the joint prevention and control regulation improve the air quality? A quasi-experiment in the Beijing economic belt during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study aims to clarify the correlation between air pollution of cities in Beijing Economic Belt from a time-varying perspective and estimate effects of joint prevention and control regulation of air pollution. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity. Based on daily data of air quality, we used TVP-VAR model and utilize the pandemic as a quasi-experiment to assess the policies. The results show air pollution in surrounding cities does influence Beijing's air quality, but the relationship has been weakening year by year, mainly due to industrial adjustment which have achieved progress on alleviating the path of air pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to implement joint regulation in areas with serious pollution. Specifically, the relationship between the air quality of Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Tianjin decreased as the pandemic became worse. In contrast, there was no significant decline in Langfang and Baoding. So unlike Baoding and Langfang, industrial production increased relationships between air quality of Beijing and the other three cities, which highlights the validity of restrictions. However, restrictions implemented on Baoding and Langfang affect economic development but have little effect on Beijing's air governance. Therefore, joint regulation contributes to realizing sustainable cities, but more targeted policies should be formulated.

A hybrid deep learning framework for air quality prediction with spatial autocorrelation during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…(5) where ω i,j is the spatial weight between the i-th and j-th sites; n is the total amount of selected sites; and Z j is the residual series of the j-th site, calculated from Eq. (5). The weight ω i,j is estimated with the kringing regression method considering the tuning spatial correlation function.…”

“…For example, at the end of 2019, a new coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China, which was easily transmitted through the air. To cut off the transmission of the virus, the Wuhan government implemented a 76-day lockdown policy limiting human activities, which in turn positively improved air quality 5 , 6 , because the concentrations of , , and CO from vehicle exhaust and industry decreased dramatically 7 . According to Lian et al 8 , the concentration and AQI decreased by 53.2% and 33.9%, respectively, during the lockdown period in Wuhan.…”