Relationship between Air Pollutants and Economic Development of the Provincial Capital Cities in China during the Past Decade

Abstract

With the economic development of China, air pollutants are also growing rapidly in recent decades, especially in big cities of the country. To understand the relationship between economic condition and air pollutants in big cities, we analysed the socioeconomic indictorssuch as Gross Regional Product per capita (GRP per capita), the concentration of air pollutants (PM10, SO2, NO2) and the air pollution index (API) from 2003 to 2012 in 31 provincial capitals of mainland China. The three main industries had a quadratic correlation with NO2, but a negative relationship with PM10 and SO2. The concentration of air pollutants per ten thousand yuan decreased with the multiplying of GRP in the provinical cities. The concentration of air pollutants and API in the provincial capital cities showed a declining trend or inverted-U trend with the rise of GRP per capita, which provided a strong evidence for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), that the environmental quality first declines, then improves, with the income growth. The results of this research improved our understanding of the alteration of atmospheric quality with the increase of social economy and demonstrated the feasibility of sustainable development for China.

Extreme Air Pollution in Global Megacities

“…China's most populous megacities, Shanghai and Beijing, are expected to increase from 23.7 to 30.8 million and from 20.4 to 27.7 million, respectively, between 2015 and 2030 [2]. The relationship between economic development and air quality in China's largest cities has followed the inverted-U shape of an environmental Kuznets curve for the past several decades [36], with pollution-related mortality highest in the megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, and the Pearl River area [5••].…”

Air pollution driving factors analysis: Evidence from economically developed area in China

“…, Egli , Roca et al . , Cai Zhonghua , and Yunpeng Luo found that only few relationships between environmental degradation and economic output supported the EKC hypothesis. Moreover, the fulfillment of the hypothesis was mostly conditional.…”

“…However, some practitioners addressed that the inverted Ushaped relationship did not always exist. Jie He and Patrick Richard, [15], Song et al [16], Egli [17], Roca et al [18], Cai Zhonghua [19], and Yunpeng Luo [20] found that only few relationships between environmental degradation and economic output supported the EKC hypothesis. Moreover, the fulfillment of the hypothesis was mostly conditional.…”

Scavenging of Nitrogen From the Atmosphere by Atmospheric (Rain and Snow) and Occult (Dew and Frost) Precipitation: Comparison of Urban and Nonurban Deposition Profiles

“…Removal of N compounds from the atmosphere goes under a fusion process occurring between the gas particles or particulates and precipitation molecules as the result of collision and coalescence processes, as well as in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging processes, during precipitation's entire lifetime (Franklin, 2014;Jung et al, 2003;Murillo et al, 2012). Various factors influencing these processes have been investigated in detailed (i) characteristic of precipitation, for example, intensity (Elperin et al, 2016;Jung et al, 2003), rainfall rate (Ferm, 1998;Hannemann et al, 1996), raindrop size (Ebert et al, 1998;Jung et al, 2003), and ice particles properties (Jin & Chu, 2007); (ii) characteristics of the constituents, for example, chemistry (Fuzzi et al, 1994, Behera et al, 2013, emission (Fagerli & Aas, 2008;Luo et al, 2014), and daily fluxes (Rubio et al, 2002); and (iii) meteorological condition, for example, atmospheric circulation and air temperature (Hongisto & Joffre, 2005;Murillo et al, 2012). Pools and fluxes of different N-species via atmospheric precipitation have been also explored: below-cloud scavenging of HNO 3 and NO 3 during rainfall (Calderón et al, 2008); heterogeneous formation processes influence on NO 2 concentration in atmospheric liquid phase (Acker et al, 2008); in-cloud multiphase distribution of NH 3 /NH 4 + , HNO 3 /NO 3 -, and HNO 2 /NO 2 - (Fuzzi et al, 1994); SO 2 /NH 3 /CO 2 plume uptake versus raindrop size (Hannemann et al, 1996); and fluxes of NO, NO 2 , HONO, HNO 3 , NH 3 , NH 4 + , and NO 3 in the atmosphere (Trebs et al, 2006).…”