Tropospheric Ozone Perturbations Induced by Urban Land Expansion in China from 1980 to 2017

Abstract

Urbanization perturbs air pollutants from a dynamic and thermodynamic perspective, which has inspired extensive investigations in China due to rapid urban land expansion in the past four decades. However, knowledge gaps remain in the long-term and nationwide responses to air pollutants to urbanization. The evolution of tropospheric ozone associated with urban land expansion across China was assessed from 1980 to 2017 using a coupled WRF-Chem model based on a recently updated land use change (LUC) data set. The results revealed that urban-land expansion drove growing ozone trends for this period and contributed about 3−9% to its summer maximum concentrations during the 2010s in major urban agglomerations across China. The association between a long-term change in summer O 3 concentrations and LUC after excluding the effect of precursor emissions and meteorological conditions and causes of interannual (short-term) variations in O 3 concentrations induced by urban-land expansion were also explored by examining the relationships between ozone fluctuations and meteorological variables.

Associations of interannual variation of Summer Tropospheric Ozone with Western Pacific Subtropical High in China from 1999 to 2017

“…To fill this knowledge gap, we performed multiple atmospheric chemistry model simulations of summer (June, July, and August) O3 concentrations across China from 1999 to 2017. This unique O3 dataset enables us to explore the responses of the long-term trend and interannual variation of O3 concentrations to climate variations and to take a broader look at the associations between ozone evolution and the Western Pacific subtropical high in China (Zhang et al, 2022).…”

Identifying driving factors of urban land expansion using Google Earth Engine and machine-learning approaches in Mentougou District, China

“…Land use/cover change (LUCC) has become the focus of land science research 1 . As an important component of LUCC, urban land expansion plays a vital role in the regional ecological environment and economic development 2 . As the largest developing country in the world, China has experienced rapid urban land expansion since the implementation of reform and opening-up in 1978.…”

“…In the past decades, scholars have intensively investigated urban land expansion, which is mainly focused on the following aspects: (i) the characteristics of urban land expansion and spatial distribution trend of urban land expansion and (ii) analysis drivers of urban land expansion 8 , 9 . In the first research area, previous studies generally used urban land expansion density 2 , urban land expansion intensity 10 , gravity center migration 11 and Gini coefficient 7 to evaluate urban land expansion change.…”

Construction Land Expansion of Resource-Based Cities in China: Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Driving Factors

“…Currently, research on CLE mainly focuses on three aspects, namely, the impact of CLE on sustainable development, spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of CLE, and the driving factors of CLE. As to the impact of CLE on sustainable development, scholars explored the negative effects of CLE; such as the decrease in cultivated land [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], spatial evolution of rural settlements [ 16 ], eco-security and biodiversity loss [ 17 , 18 , 19 ], air pollution [ 20 , 21 ], and the increase in tropospheric ozone concentration [ 18 ]. Regarding the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of CLE, some studies discussed the trend of CLE in the past decades [ 7 ], while others predicted the trend of CLE in the future [ 2 , 10 , 22 ].…”

“…Regarding the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of CLE, some studies discussed the trend of CLE in the past decades [ 7 ], while others predicted the trend of CLE in the future [ 2 , 10 , 22 ]. The method, such as the sprawl intensity index [ 23 ], exponential landscape expansion index [ 24 , 25 ], spatial center shift model, urban land expansion estimation [ 26 ], and ArcGIS-based spatial analysis [ 27 ], have been mainly used in the analysis of a single city [ 18 ], urban agglomeration, or provincial area [ 27 , 28 , 29 ], all cities in a given nation [ 30 , 31 ] and global scale [ 10 , 26 ]. Concerning the driving factors of CLE, many scholars have proposed that CLE is affected by population growth [ 32 , 33 ], and economic development [ 34 , 35 , 36 ], while others have indicated that CLE is related to the behavior of local governments [ 23 , 37 , 38 ].…”