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Consistency of the relationship between air pollution and the urban form: Evidence from the COVID-19 natural experiment.

ABSTRACT: The lockdown measures enacted to control the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, resulted in a suspension of nearly all non-essential human activities on January 23, 2020. Nevertheless, the lockdown provided a natural experiment to understand the consistency of the relationship between the urban form and air pollution with different compositions of locally or regionally transported sources. This study investigated the variations in six air pollutants (PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO₂, CO, O₃, and SO₂) in Wuhan before and during the lockdown and in the two same time spans in 2021. Moreover, a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis was conducted to differentiate the relative levels of pollutants and to detect the relationships between the air pollutants and the urban form during these four periods. Several features depicting the urban physical structures delivered consistent impacts. A lower building density and plot ratio, and a higher porosity always mitigated the concentrations of NO₂ and PM_2.5. However, they had inverse effects on O₃ during the non-lockdown periods. PM₁₀, CO, and SO₂ concentrations have little correlation with the urban form. This study improves the comprehensive understanding of the effect of the urban form on ambient air pollution and suggests practical strategies for mitigating air pollution in Wuhan.

SUBMITTER: Liu M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9194566 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Consistency of the relationship between air pollution and the urban form: Evidence from the COVID-19 natural experiment.

Liu Mengyang M Wei Di D Chen Hong H

Sustainable cities and society 20220530

The lockdown measures enacted to control the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, resulted in a suspension of nearly all non-essential human activities on January 23, 2020. Nevertheless, the lockdown provided a natural experiment to understand the consistency of the relationship between the urban form and air pollution with different compositions of locally or regionally transported sources. This study investigated the variations in six air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2</ ...[more]

PMID: 35719128

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Project description:The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a severe public health and social problem worldwide. A limitation of the existing literature is that multiple environmental variables have not been frequently elaborated, which is why the overall effect of the environment on COVID-19 has not been conclusive. In this study, we used generalized additive model (GAM) to detect the relationship between meteorological and air pollution variables and COVID-19 in four urban agglomerations in China and made comparisons among the urban agglomerations. The four urban agglomerations are Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), middle reaches of the Yangtze River (MYR), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and the Pearl River Delta (PRD). The daily rates of average precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, sunshine duration, and atmospheric pressure were selected as meteorological variables. The PM2.5, PM10, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide (CO) contents were selected as air pollution variables. The results indicated that meteorological and air pollution variables tended to be significantly correlated. Moreover, the nature of the relationship between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and meteorological and air pollution variables (i.e., linear or nonlinear) varied with urban agglomerations. Among the variance explained by GAMs, BTH had the highest value (75.4%), while MYR had the lowest value (35.2%). The values of the YRD and PRD were between the above two, namely 45.6% and 62.2%, respectively. The findings showed that the association between SARS-CoV-2 and meteorological and air pollution variables varied in regions, making it difficult to obtain a relationship that is applicable to every region. Moreover, this study enriches our understanding of SARS-CoV-2. It is required to create awareness within the government that anti-COVID-19 measures should be adapted to the local meteorological and air pollution conditions.

Project description:BackgroundPrevious studies have reported decreased birth weight associated with increased air pollutant concentrations during pregnancy. However, it is not clear when during pregnancy increases in air pollution are associated with the largest differences in birth weight.ObjectivesUsing the natural experiment of air pollution declines during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, we evaluated whether having specific months of pregnancy (i.e., 1st…8th) during the 2008 Olympics period was associated with larger birth weights, compared with pregnancies during the same dates in 2007 or 2009.MethodsUsing n = 83,672 term births to mothers residing in four urban districts of Beijing, we estimated the difference in birth weight associated with having individual months of pregnancy during the 2008 Olympics (8 August-24 September 2008) compared with the same dates in 2007 and 2009. We also estimated the difference in birth weight associated with interquartile range (IQR) increases in mean ambient particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations during each pregnancy month.ResultsBabies whose 8th month of gestation occurred during the 2008 Olympics were, on average, 23 g larger (95% CI: 5 g, 40 g) than babies whose 8th month occurred during the same calendar dates in 2007 or 2009. IQR increases in PM2.5 (19.8 μg/m3), CO (0.3 ppm), SO2 (1.8 ppb), and NO2 (13.6 ppb) concentrations during the 8th month of pregnancy were associated with 18 g (95% CI: -32 g, -3 g), 17 g (95% CI: -28 g, -6 g), 23 g (95% CI: -36 g, -10 g), and 34 g (95% CI: -70 g, 3 g) decreases in birth weight, respectively. We did not see significant associations for months 1-7.ConclusionsShort-term decreases in air pollution late in pregnancy in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics, a normally heavily polluted city, were associated with higher birth weight.CitationRich DQ, Liu K, Zhang J, Thurston SW, Stevens TP, Pan Y, Kane C, Weinberger B, Ohman-Strickland P, Woodruff TJ, Duan X, Assibey-Mensah V, Zhang J. 2015. Differences in birth weight associated with the 2008 Beijing Olympics air pollution reduction: results from a natural experiment. Environ Health Perspect 123:880-887; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408795.

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Consistency of the relationship between air pollution and the urban form: Evidence from the COVID-19 natural experiment.

Publications

Consistency of the relationship between air pollution and the urban form: Evidence from the COVID-19 natural experiment.

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