Lessons learnt for air pollution mitigation policies from the COVID-19 pandemic: The Italian perspective.

ABSTRACT: Policies to improve air quality need to be based on effective plans for reducing anthropogenic emissions. In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant reductions of anthropogenic pollutant emissions, offering an unexpected opportunity to observe their consequences on ambient concentrations. Taking the national lockdown occurred in Italy between March and May 2020 as a case study, this work tries to infer if and what lessons may be learnt concerning the impact of emission reduction policies on air quality. Variations of NO₂, O₃, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 concentrations were calculated from numerical model simulations obtained with business as usual and lockdown specific emissions. Both simulations were performed at national level with a

SUBMITTER: D'Isidoro M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9716127 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature