Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 14;18(8):4155. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18084155.
The Pearl River Delta (PRD) region is located on the southeast coast of mainland China and it is an important economic hub. The high levels of particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere, however, and poor visibility have become a complex environmental problem for the region. Air quality modeling systems are useful to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of air pollution, making use of atmospheric emission data as inputs. Over the years, several atmospheric emission inventories have been developed for the Asia region. The main purpose of this work is to evaluate the performance of the air quality modeling system for simulating PM concentrations over the PRD using three atmospheric emission inventories (i.e., EDGAR, REAS and MIX) during a winter and a summer period. In general, there is a tendency to underestimate PM levels, but results based on the EDGAR emission inventory show slightly better accuracy. However, improvements in the spatial and temporal disaggregation of emissions are still needed to properly represent PRD air quality. This study's comparison of the three emission inventories' data, as well as their PM simulating outcomes, generates recommendations for future improvements to atmospheric emission inventories and our understanding of air pollution problems in the PRD region.
珠江三角洲（PRD）位于中国大陆的东南沿海，是一个重要的经济中心。然而，该地区大气中颗粒物（PM）含量高，能见度差，已成为一个复杂的环境问题。空气质量模型系统可用于了解空气污染的时间和空间分布，利用大气排放数据作为输入。多年来，亚洲地区已经开发了几种大气排放清单。本工作的主要目的是评估空气质量模型系统在冬季和夏季使用三种大气排放清单（EDGAR、REAS 和 MIX）模拟 PRD 地区 PM 浓度的性能。总的来说，存在低估 PM 水平的趋势，但基于 EDGAR 排放清单的结果显示出稍高的准确性。然而，仍需要改进排放的时空离散化，以正确表示 PRD 的空气质量。本研究对这三种排放清单的数据及其 PM 模拟结果进行了比较，为未来改进大气排放清单和我们对 PRD 地区空气污染问题的理解提供了建议。
