School of Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China.
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jan 20;805:150248. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150248. Epub 2021 Sep 10.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown policy across the globe has brought improved air quality while fighting against the coronavirus. After the closure, urban air quality was subject to emission reduction of air pollutants and rebounded to the previous level after the potency period of recession. Different response patterns exhibit divergent sensitivities of urban resilience in regard to air pollution. In this paper, we investigate the post-lockdown AQI values of 314 major cities in China to analyse their differential effects on the influence factors of urban resilience. The major findings of this paper include: 1) Cities exhibit considerable range of resilience with their AQI values which are dropped by 21.1% per day, took 3.97 days on average to reach the significantly decreased trough point, and reduced by 49.3% after the lockdown initiatives. 2) Mega cities and cities that locate as the focal points of transportation for nearby provinces, together with those with high AQI values, were more struggling to maintain a good air quality with high rebounds. 3) Urban resilience shows divergent spatial sensitivities to air pollution controls. Failing to consider multi-dimensional factors besides from geomorphological and economical activities could lead to uneven results of environmental policies. The results unveil key drivers of urban air pollution mitigation, and provide valuable insights for prediction of air quality in response to anthropogenic interference events under different macro-economic contexts. Research findings in this paper can be adopted for prevention and management of public health risks from the perspective of urban resilience and environmental management in face of disruptive outbreak events in future.
自 COVID-19 大流行爆发以来，全球各地的封锁政策在抗击冠状病毒的同时提高了空气质量。封锁后，城市空气质量受到减少空气污染物排放的影响，并在衰退期过后反弹至先前水平。不同的反应模式表现出城市对空气污染的弹性的不同敏感性。在本文中，我们调查了中国 314 个主要城市的封锁后的 AQI 值，以分析它们对城市弹性的影响因素的差异影响。本文的主要发现包括：1）城市表现出相当大的弹性范围，其 AQI 值每天下降 21.1%，平均需要 3.97 天才能达到明显的下降谷点，封锁措施实施后下降了 49.3%。2）特大城市和作为附近省份交通枢纽的城市，以及那些 AQI 值较高的城市，在维持空气质量方面更具挑战性，反弹幅度较大。3）城市弹性对空气污染控制表现出不同的空间敏感性。除了地貌和经济活动之外，未能考虑多维因素可能导致环境政策的结果不均衡。研究结果揭示了城市空气污染缓解的关键驱动因素，并为在不同宏观经济背景下应对人为干扰事件对空气质量的预测提供了有价值的见解。本文的研究结果可以从城市弹性和环境管理的角度为未来应对突发疫情事件时的公共卫生风险预防和管理提供参考。
