Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Air Quality in Korea

Seo, Ji Hoon; Jeon, Hyun Woo; Sung, Ui Jae; Sohn, Jong Ryeul

doi:10.3390/atmos11101137

Cited by 57 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Daegu, which showed the second largest decrease (in %) in the upper quartile of the daily-mean PM 2.5 concentration (Fig. 2(a)), had the largest decrease in CO concentration (−28.6%) going from pre-SD to SD, which is also in line with Seo et al (2020).…”

Section: Inter-city Comparisonssupporting

confidence: 68%

Inter- and intra-city comparisons of PM2.5 concentration changes under COVID-19 social distancing in seven major cities of South Korea

Kwak

Han

Park

et al. 2021

Air Qual Atmos Health

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The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted governments around the world to impose mitigation strategies of unprecedented scales, typically involving some form of restrictions on social activities and transportation. The South Korean government has been recommending a collection of guidelines now known as social distancing, leading to reduced human activities. This study analyzes changes in the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) during the 30-day periods before and since the start of social distancing on 29 February 2020 using measurement data from air quality monitoring stations at various locations of the seven major cities of South Korea, namely, Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju, and Ulsan. All seven cities experienced decreased levels of PM2.5 concentration by up to 25% and smaller fluctuations during the period of social distancing. Inter-city comparisons show that the PM2.5 concentration changes are positively correlated with the city-wide PM2.5 emission fractions for mobile sources and negatively correlated with the city-wide PM2.5 emission fractions for combustion and industrial process sources. In addition, the meteorological influences favorable for transboundary pollutant transport have weakened during the period under COVID-19 social distancing. Intra-city comparisons show that decreases in the intra-city variability of PM2.5 concentration were larger in coastal cities than in inland cities. Comparisons between the inter- and intra-city variabilities in the PM2.5 concentration changes under social distancing highlight the importance of taking into account intra-city variabilities in addition to inter-city variabilities.

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Section: Inter-city Comparisonssupporting

confidence: 68%

Inter- and intra-city comparisons of PM2.5 concentration changes under COVID-19 social distancing in seven major cities of South Korea

Kwak

Han

Park

et al. 2021

Air Qual Atmos Health

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“…A comparison of the average CO levels revealed that a 39% reduction occurred at Alphington (Katestone, 2020b , c ). In Seoul, Korea, PM 2.5 showed a considerable drop of 36% in March 2020 compared to the same time of 2017–2019 (Seo et al 2020 ). A decrease of 20.6% in PM 2.5 levels in the USA was also observed in March 2020 relative to March 2019.…”

Section: Indirect Impacts Of Covid-19 On the Environment Of The Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of COVID-19 on Victoria, Australia, witnessed two waves of Coronavirus

Boroujeni

Saberian

2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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The COVID-19 pandemic not only has created a global health crisis but also has dramatic effects on the environment. To fight the spread of Coronavirus, governments imposed social distancing policies, which caused negative and positive impacts on the environment. Victoria, the second-most populated state in Australia, was hit by two waves of COVID-19. During the second wave of the pandemic, Victoria, especially Melbourne, experienced one of the most stringent and longest lockdowns globally. In this study, the changes in mobility trends, traffic, air pollution, noise pollution, and waste generation during the first and second waves of COVID-19 in Victoria are evaluated and compared. It was observed that the pandemic had both positive and negative impacts on the environment. During the second wave of the pandemic in Victoria, the mobility trends of public transport hubs, retail and recreation venues, and workplaces experienced a significant drop in movements at respective values of 85%, 83%, and 76% compared to the period of 5 weeks from 3 January to 6 February 2020. PM 2.5 levels were lower by 23% at Alphington and 24% at Footscray from 16 March to 1 May 2020 compared with the average PM 2.5 levels in the past 4 years. It was estimated that the respective daily generations of used face masks during the first wave and second wave of the pandemic in Victoria were approximately 104 and 160 tons.

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“…Data processing was performed on raw concentration values, without Due to the progressive enforcement of the restrictive measures since the last week of February, atmospheric emissions varied from day to day, also depending on the pollutants in emissions, compared to their typical values (Supplementary Materials Figure S1). Estimates developed by the Environmental Agency of Lombardia [32] for NOx during the weeks from 9 March to 26 April indicated reductions around a regional average value of about −36%, but ranging between −44% (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) and −20% (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15); however, emission reductions in large urban areas in April were −50%, and sometimes −60%. The main contributor to these decreases was the reduction in emissions from road traffic, which was estimated to be around −65% over the entire lockdown period, but −75% at the beginning of April.…”

Section: A B Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, a number of papers have been published reporting the changes in concentration levels for certain pollutants in different areas worldwide, where light or heavy restrictive measures have been implemented [5]. Most of these works refer to China [6][7][8], Korea [9][10][11], India [12], Central [13,14], and South-East Asia [15], but also to Western European countries [16][17][18], Africa [19,20], and North and South America [21][22][23]. The few studies related waste treatment each accounted for 1% of the total annual emissions (about 185 Gg year -1 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Scale Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Air Quality: Gaseous Pollutants in the Po Valley, Northern Italy

Lonati

Riva

2021

Atmosphere

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The impact of the reduced atmospheric emissions due to the COVID-19 lockdown on ambient air quality in the Po Valley of Northern Italy was assessed for gaseous pollutants (NO2, benzene, ammonia) based on data collected at the monitoring stations distributed all over the area. Concentration data for each month of the first semester of 2020 were compared with those of the previous six years, on monthly, daily, and hourly bases, so that pre, during, and post-lockdown conditions of air quality could be separately analyzed. The results show that, as in many other areas worldwide, the Po Valley experienced better air quality during 2020 spring months for NO2 and benzene. In agreement with the reductions of nitrogen oxides and benzene emissions from road traffic, estimated to be −35% compared to the regional average, the monthly mean concentration levels for 2020 showed reductions in the −40% to −35% range compared with the previous years, but with higher reductions, close to −50%, at high-volume-traffic sites in urban areas. Conversely, NH3 ambient concentration levels, almost entirely due the emissions of the agricultural sector, did not show any relevant change, even at high-volume-traffic sites in urban areas. These results point out the important role of traffic emissions in NO2 and benzene ambient levels in the Po Valley, and confirm that this region is a rather homogeneous air basin with urban area hot-spots, the contributions of which add up to a relatively high regional background concentration level. Additionally, the relatively slow response of the air quality levels to the sudden decrease of the emissions due to the lockdown shows that this region is characterized by a weak exchange of the air masses that favors both the build-up of atmospheric pollutants and the development of secondary formation processes. Thus, air quality control strategies should aim for structural interventions intended to reduce traffic emissions at the regional scale and not only in the largest urban areas.

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Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Air Quality in Korea

Cited by 57 publications

References 35 publications

Inter- and intra-city comparisons of PM2.5 concentration changes under COVID-19 social distancing in seven major cities of South Korea

Inter- and intra-city comparisons of PM2.5 concentration changes under COVID-19 social distancing in seven major cities of South Korea

Environmental impacts of COVID-19 on Victoria, Australia, witnessed two waves of Coronavirus

Regional Scale Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Air Quality: Gaseous Pollutants in the Po Valley, Northern Italy

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