Mapping ozone source-receptor relationship and apportioning the health impact in the Pearl River Delta region using adjoint sensitivity analysis.

While fine particulate matters are decreasing in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, the regional ozone (O) shows an increasing trend that affects human health, leading to an urgent need for scientific understanding of source-receptor relationship between O and its precursor emissions given the changing background composition. We advanced and applied an adjoint air quality model to map contributions of individual O precursor emission sources [nitrogen oxides (NO) and volatile organic compound (VOC)] at each location to annual regional O concentrations and to identify the possible dominant influential pathways of emission sources to O at different spatiotemporal scales. Additionally, we introduced the novel adjoint sensitivity approach to assess the relationship between precursor emissions and O-induced premature mortality. Adjoint results show that Shenzhen was a major source contributor to regional O throughout all seasons, of which 49.4% (3.8%) were from its NO (VOC) emissions. Local emissions (within PRD) contributed to 83% of the regional O whereas only ~54% of the estimated ~4000 regional O-induced premature mortalities. The discrepancy between these two contributions was because O-induced mortalities are dependent on not only O concentration, but incident rate and population density. We also found that a city with low O-induced mortalities could have significant emission contributions to health impact in the region since the transport pathways could be through transport of local O or through transport of O precursors that form regional O thereafter. It is therefore necessary to formulate emission control policies from both air quality and public health perspectives, and it is also critical to have better understanding of influential pathways of emission sources to O.