State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Institute of Atmospheric Environment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
Sci Rep. 2016 Oct 12;6:34891. doi: 10.1038/srep34891.
Although air quality monitoring networks have been greatly improved, interpreting their expanding data in both simple and efficient ways remains challenging. Therefore, needed are new analytical methods. We developed such a method based on the comparison of pollutant concentrations between target and circum areas (circum comparison for short), and tested its applications by assessing the air pollution in Jing-Jin-Ji, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Cheng-Yu, China during 2015. We found the circum comparison can instantly judge whether a city is a pollution permeation donor or a pollution permeation receptor by a Pollution Permeation Index (PPI). Furthermore, a PPI-related estimated concentration (original concentration plus halved average concentration difference) can be used to identify some overestimations and underestimations. Besides, it can help explain pollution process (e.g., Beijing's PM maybe largely promoted by non-local SO) though not aiming at it. Moreover, it is applicable to any region, easy-to-handle, and able to boost more new analytical methods. These advantages, despite its disadvantages in considering the whole process jointly influenced by complex physical and chemical factors, demonstrate that the PPI based circum comparison can be efficiently used in assessing air pollution by yielding instructive results, without the absolute need for complex operations.
尽管空气质量监测网络已经得到了极大的改善，但以简单有效的方式解释其不断扩大的数据仍然具有挑战性。因此，需要新的分析方法。我们基于目标区域和周边区域污染物浓度的比较（简称周边比较）开发了这样一种方法，并通过评估 2015 年中国京津冀、长三角、珠三角和成渝地区的空气污染来测试其应用。我们发现，通过污染渗透指数（PPI），周边比较可以立即判断一个城市是污染渗透源还是受体。此外，相关的估计浓度（原始浓度加上减半的平均浓度差）可用于识别一些高估和低估。此外，它可以帮助解释污染过程（例如，北京的 PM 可能主要是由非本地 SO 推动的），尽管不是针对这一点。此外，它适用于任何地区，易于操作，并且能够促进更多新的分析方法。尽管该方法在考虑复杂的物理和化学因素共同影响的整个过程方面存在一些不足，但 PPI 为基础的周边比较在评估空气污染方面具有高效性，可以产生有益的结果，而不一定需要复杂的操作。
