Search

From 1990 to 2017, the number of vehicles in China increased sharply from 5 million to 310 million, and vehicle emissions became one of the major sources of air pollution. Among the main sources of PM 2.5 in Beijing, the contributions from vehicle sources increased from 5.6% (2000) to 31.1% (2012) to 45% (2017). In 2010, the CO, hydrocarbon (HC), NO x , and particulate matter (PM) emissions of yellow-label vehicles (YLVs) accounted for 46.1%, 47.9%, 63.1% and 86.1% of the total emissions from on-road vehicles. In recent years, China has been implementing a YLV scrappage subsidy policy to control air pollution, and this policy has cost several hundred billion yuan nationwide. However, China has not evaluated the costs and benefits of the policy. Many people question whether the YLV scrappage subsidy policy is worthwhile, but all the stakeholders involved complicate the process of accurately evaluating the true value of the policy. In this study, we evaluated and compared the costs and benefits of the policy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region based on 1.362 million YLVs from 2008 to 2015. Because of the implementation of the policy, the PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO x , CO and HC emissions in the BTH region decreased by 16.46, 18.12, 174.44, 669.11, and 91.64 kt, respectively, in 2008–2015. The results show that the policy played an important role in reducing pollutant emissions and improving environmental quality in the BTH region. The costs, benefits, and net benefits of the policy were 13.69, 34.03, and 20.34 billion yuan , respectively. The cost-benefit ratio in the BTH region was 1:2.49; at the city scale, Beijing ranked first (1:7.27), and the cost-benefit ratios of Tianjin and Hebei Province were 1:2.06 and 1:1.14, respectively. Of the 13 cities in the BTH region, Beijing had the highest net benefits, amounting to 16.43 billion yuan , while Handan City has the lowest net benefits, amounting to −0.58 billion yuan. The results may provide scientific support for the promotion of older vehicle and diesel vehicle scrappage subsidy policies, the development of cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and effective environmental decision-making in China. • Based on net number of scrappage YLVs, net benefits of the policy are calculated. • This paper estimates costs and benefits of the policy based on 1.27 million YLVs. • The costs, benefits, and net benefits are 13.69, 34.03, and 20.34 billion yuan. • The results help China promote vehicle scrappage subsidy policy on a large scale. • The results promote the development of the cost-benefit analysis in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing, the capital of China, has experienced rapid industrialization, urbanization and motorization in recent decades. Consequently, air pollution in Beijing, especially fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) pollution, has gradually become a severe environmental issue, due to the continuing growth in energy consumption and the resulting multiple pollutant emissions. In response to the increasingly serious PM 2.5 pollution, Beijing's government implemented a series of policies, measures and regulations on air pollution prevention and control and took some concrete actions to improve air quality. In this paper, firstly, we summarize China's ambient air quality standards, China's policies and regulations on air pollution prevention and control. Secondly, we illustrate historical evolution and current status of air pollution in Beijing. Finally, we introduce control measures and actions in Beijing and its surrounding areas. The paper aims to help environmental scientists and policy makers around the world understand the past and current air pollution in Beijing and control strategies and actions taken by Beijing's government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-reported life satisfaction of China's population has not improved as much as expected during the economic boom, which was accompanied by a significant decline in environmental performance. Is environmental pollution the culprit for the lagging subjective well-being? To explore this issue, this paper adopts sentiment analysis to construct a real-time daily subjective well-being metric at the city level based on the big data of online search traces. Using daily data from 13 Chinese cities centred on Beijing between August 2014 and December 2019, we look at the corelation between subjective well-being and air pollution and the heterogeneity in this relationship based on two separate identification strategies. We find that air pollutants are negatively correlated with subjective well-being, and well-being tends to decline more from pollution during hot seasons. In addition, residents in wealthier regions tend to be more sensitive to air pollution. This result may be explained by the differences in the subjective perception of air pollution and personal preferences at different levels of income. These findings provide information about concerns of the public, thereby helping the government to take appropriate actions to respond to the dynamics of subjective well-being. • Sentiment analysis and big data are adopted to construct a daily city-level subjective well-being metric. • Higher levels of airborne particulates lead to a decline in subjective well-being. • Peoples' well-being tends to decline more from pollution during hot seasons. • Residents in wealthier regions tend to be more sensitive to air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent past Beijing has experienced rapid development. This growth has been accompanied by many problems including traffic congestion and air pollution. Understanding what stimulates urban growth is important for sustainable development in the coming years. In this paper, we first estimate a binary auto-logistic model of land use change, using physical and socioeconomic characteristics of the location and its access to major centers within the city as predictors. We find that variables determining regional access, like time distance to the city center, the Central Business District (CBD), industrial centers, employment centers, and the transportation system, significantly impact urban land conversion. By using measures of access to predict land use change we believe that we can better understand the planning implications of urban growth not only in Beijing but other rapidly developing cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To improve the air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Beijing Municipal Government enforced a series of emission control measures. This provided a valuable case study to evaluate the effectiveness of these aggressive measures on mitigating air pollution and improving the atmospheric environment. In this paper, we report the first results of the chemical and Sr isotopic compositions of the rainwater in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic year. The ionic composition of samples show that Ca2+ and NH4 + were the dominant cations, accounting for about 76–97% of the total cations, and that SO4 2− and NO3 − were the major anions, accounting for 61–91% of the total anions measured. Using Na as the indicator of marine origin and Al as that of terrestrial inputs, the proportions of sea salt and terrestrial elements were estimated from elemental ratios. The calculated results indicate that the major chemical components were mainly of non-sea-salt origin. Good correlation between Ca2+ and Sr2+ (R 2 =0.85) in rainwater samples indicates the potential of Sr as a provenance tracer for Ca. Sr2+ concentrations in rainwater samples ranged from 0.01 to 2.87μmoll−1, with 87Sr/86Sr ratios from 0.7092 to 0.7109. All of the samples had a 87Sr/86Sr ratio higher than that of seawater. The 87Sr/86Sr isotopic and elemental ratio systems show that the data set of rainwater was mainly distributed between the seawater end-member (~0.70917) and the soil dust end-member (0.7111–0.7115), and the analysis indicate that the effect of anthropogenic inputs could decrease in 2008. Comparisons of the chemical composition of the rainwater in different periods show that all chemical components, except NH4 +, had the lowest concentration levels during the Olympic Game period. The VWM concentrations of major ions in the rainwater decreased significantly during the Olympic period by up to 29% for SO4 2−, 39% for NO3 −, 38% for Ca2+, 51% for Mg2+, 57% for K+, and 44% for Na+, compared with the pre-control period. The concentrations of almost all species decreased during the 2008 Olympics, most likely due to both strict emission controls and favorable meteorological conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Valuation of health effects of air pollution is becoming a critical component of the performance of cost–benefit analysis of pollution control measures, which provides a basis for setting priorities for action. Beijing has focused on control of transport emission as vehicular emissions have recently become an important source of air pollution, particularly during Olympic games and Post-games. In this paper, we conducted an estimation of health effects and economic cost caused by road transport-related air pollution using an integrated assessment approach which utilizes air quality model, engineering, epidemiology, and economics. The results show that the total economic cost of health impacts due to air pollution contributed from transport in Beijing during 2004–2008 was 272, 297, 310, 323, 298 million US$ (mean value), respectively. The economic costs of road transport accounted for 0.52, 0.57, 0.60, 0.62, and 0.58% of annual Beijing GDP from 2004 to 2008. Average cost per vehicle and per ton of PM10 emission from road transport can also be estimated as 106 US $/number and 3584 US $ t−1, respectively. These findings illustrate that the impact of road transport contributed particulate air pollution on human health could be substantial in Beijing, whether in physical and economic terms. Therefore, some control measures to reduce transport emissions could lead to considerable economic benefit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aggressive traffic interventions and emission control measures implemented to improve air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games created a valuable case study to evaluate the effectiveness of these measures on mitigating air pollution and protecting public health. In this paper, we report the results from our field campaign in summer 2008 on the on-road emission factors of carbon monoxide, black carbon (BC) and ultrafine particles (UFP) as well as the ambient BC concentrations. The fleet average emission factors for light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGV) showed considerable reduction in the Olympic year (2008) compared to the pre-Olympic year (2007). Our measurement of Black Carbon (BC), a primary pollutant, at different elevations at the ambient site suggests consistent decrease in BC concentrations as the height increased near the ground level, which indicates that the nearby ground level sources, probably dominated by traffic, contributed to a large portion of BC concentrations in the lower atmospheric layer in Beijing during summertime. These observations indicate that people living in near ground levels experience higher exposures than those living in higher floors in Beijing. The BC diurnal patterns on days when traffic control were in place during the Olympic Games were compared to those on non-traffic-control days in both 2007 and in 2008. These patterns strongly suggest that diesel trucks are a major source of summertime BC in Beijing. The median BC concentration on Olympic days was 3.7 μg m−3, which was dramatically lower than the value on non-traffic-control days, indicating the effectiveness of traffic control regulations in BC reduction in Beijing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we report the results and analysis of a recent field campaign in August 2007 investigating the impacts of emissions from transportation on air quality and community concentrations in Beijing, China. We conducted measurements in three different environments, on-road, roadside and ambient. The carbon monoxide, black carbon and ultrafine particle number emission factors for on-road light-duty vehicles are derived to be 95gkg−1-fuel, 0.3gkg−1-fuel and 1.8×1015 particleskg−1-fuel, respectively. The emission factors for on-road heavy-duty vehicles are 50gkg−1-fuel, 1.3gkg−1-fuel and 1.1×1016 particleskg−1-fuel, respectively. The carbon monoxide emission factors from this study agree with those derived from remote sensing and on-board vehicle emission testing systems in China. The on-road black carbon and particle number emission factors for Chinese vehicles are reported for the first time in the literature. Strong traffic impacts can be observed from the concentrations measured in these different environments. Most clear is a reflection of diesel truck traffic activity in black carbon concentrations. The comparison of the particle size distributions measured at the three environments suggests that the traffic is a major source of ultrafine particles. A four-day traffic control experiment conducted by the Beijing Government as a pilot to test the effectiveness of proposed controls was found to be effective in reducing extreme concentrations that occurred at both on-road and ambient environments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a novel method for quantification of the total emission of gases from area sources using the mobile mini-DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) instrument, a ground based optical remote sensing technique. The presented method has been applied to measure the emission of SO2 and NO2 from the city of Beijing, P.R. China, on a time scale of approximately 2h. The measurements have been performed during two field campaigns, in April and in August 2005. The estimated emission of NO2 is roughly the same during the two field campaigns with an average emission of 189tonsd−1 during April and 174tonsd−1 during August. The estimated emission of SO2 varies greatly between the two periods, with an average emission of 293tonsd−1 during April and 52tonsd−1 during August. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we apply the method of Granger causality which is more accurate than classical correlation analysis method to determine whether the main air pollutants — Nitrogen oxides (NO x ), SO2 (Sulfur Dioxide), CO (carbon monoxide), TSP (total suspended particulates), PM10 (particulate matter smaller than 10 microns) and the mortality of respiratory diseases of the residents in Beijing have causal relationship. After ensuring NO x , SO2 and CO as the responsible substances, we use the time series method to construct the autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA) of the pollutants, so that we could predict the amount of the pollutants from 2005 to 2008. Then we use the predicted value of pollutants as the input of the neural network model and obtain the output as the change of the death rate of respiratory diseases from 2005 to 2008. In the end, reducing the amount of pollutants by 10% and inputting the data in the neural network model, we make the prediction to evaluate the level of the pollutants and concluded that NO x is the most important pollutant to control. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Particulate air pollution is a serious problem in Beijing. The annual concentration of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm (PM10), ranging from 141 to 166 μg m−3 in 2000–2004, could be very harmful to human health. In this paper, we presented the mortality and morbidity effects of PM10 pollution based on statistical data and the epidemiological exposure–response function. The economic costs to health during the 5 years were estimated to lie between US$1670 and $3655 million annually, accounting for about 6. 55% of Beijing''s gross domestic product each year. The total costs were apportioned into two parts caused by: the local emissions and long-range transported pollution. The contribution from local emissions dominated the total costs, accounting on average for 3. 60% of GDP. However, the contributions from transported pollution cannot be neglected, and the relative percentage to the total costs from the other regions could account for about 45%. An energy policy and effective measures should be proposed to reduce particulate matter, especially PM2. 5 pollution in Beijing to protect public health. The Beijing government also needs to cooperate with the other local governments to reduce high background level of particulate air pollution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Air pollution has become an emerging environmental issue in developing countries like China in the last two decades. Sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) is one of the major air pollutants that poses significant risks in many areas undergoing a process of industrialization such as Beijing. Realizing the main factor causing environmental quality changes is the key to solving this problem. By using an extended version of IPAT model, this paper aims to identify the main contributors of air pollution in Beijing from 1989 to 2012. The result shows that the most influential factors affecting air pollution in Beijing are affluence and emission intensity. From analyzing the historical background, we conclude that the air pollution change in Beijing is heavily policy-driven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]