School of Earth Science and Environmental Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, 61005, Republic of Korea.
Department of Technology Fusion Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, 05029, Republic of Korea.
Environ Pollut. 2019 Apr;247:401-409. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.01.048. Epub 2019 Jan 14.
The influence of air pollutants originating from the Chinese region on air quality over South Korea has been a major concern for policymakers. To investigate the inter-annual trends of the long-distance transport of air pollutants from China to South Korea, multi-year trend analysis was carried out for Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD, as a proxy of particulate matter), and CO (a water-insoluble air pollutant) and SO (a partially water-soluble air pollutant), over three regions in Northeast Asia. Air pollutants are typically long-range transported from the highly polluted parts of China to South Korea through the Yellow Sea. Taking advantage of this geographical merit, we carried out the multi-year trend analysis with a special focus on the Yellow Sea region. Decreasing trends of about 5-10%, 13-17% and 55-61% during the last decade were observed in surface CO, AOD and tropospheric SO columns over the North China Plain (NCP), Yellow Sea (YS), and South Korea (SK), respectively. Such decreasing trends were also found consistently during the last three, five, and seven years, indicating that the changes in pollution levels are likely in response to recent policy measures taken by the Chinese and Korean governments to improve air quality over the regions. Due to these efforts, the amounts of air pollutants transported from China to South Korea are expected to decrease in future years, to the likely rates of 1.50 ppb yr, 0.05 DU yr, and 0.56 μg m yr over the YS region for CO, SO, and PM, respectively. Given the ambitious plans recently announced by the Chinese government for the 21st meeting of Conference of Parties (COP21) and its co-control effects, the suggested percentage rates may even be conservative numbers. This analysis is expected to provide South Korean policymakers with valuable information to establish new air pollution policies in South Korea.
来自中国地区的空气污染物对韩国空气质量的影响一直是政策制定者关注的主要问题。为了研究空气污染物从中国长距离传输到韩国的多年趋势，对东北亚三个地区的气溶胶光学深度（AOD，作为颗粒物的代表）和 CO（水溶性差的空气污染物）和 SO（部分水溶性空气污染物）进行了多年趋势分析。空气污染物通常从中国污染严重的地区通过黄海长距离输送到韩国。利用这一地缘优势，我们对黄海地区进行了多年趋势分析。在中国和韩国政府采取改善这些地区空气质量的政策措施后，华北平原（NCP）、黄海（YS）和韩国（SK）的地面 CO、AOD 和对流层 SO 柱的浓度在过去十年中分别下降了约 5-10%、13-17%和 55-61%。过去三年、五年和七年的趋势分析也表明，污染水平的变化可能是对这些政策措施的响应。由于这些努力，预计未来几年从中国输送到韩国的空气污染物数量将会减少，黄海地区 CO、SO 和 PM 的输送量可能分别以 1.50 ppb yr、0.05 DU yr 和 0.56 μg m yr 的速度减少。考虑到中国政府最近为第 21 次缔约方会议（COP21）宣布的雄心勃勃的计划及其共同控制效应，建议的百分比率甚至可能是保守的数字。这项分析预计将为韩国政策制定者提供有价值的信息，以制定韩国新的空气污染政策。
