1. The greatest air quality experiment ever: Policy suggestions from the COVID-19 lockdown in twelve European cities
- Author
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Marialuisa Volta, Umberto Giostra, Giorgio Guariso, Jose Baldasano, Martin Lutz, Andreas Kerschbaumer, Annette Rauterberg-Wulff, Francisco Ferreira, Luìsa Mendes, Joana Monjardino, Nicolas Moussiopοulos, Christos Vlachokostas, Peter Viaene, Janssen Stijn, Enrico Turrini, Elena De Angelis, Claudio Carnevale, Martin L. Williams, Michela Maione, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Enginyeria de Projectes i de la Construcció, and Barcelona Supercomputing Center
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Impact of lockdown ,Multidisciplinary ,Aire -- Contaminació ,Aire -- Qualitat ,Atmospheric pollutants ,COVID-19 ,NO2 ,COVID-19 (Malaltia) ,Urban transport ,Europe ,COVID-19 (Disease) ,Policy ,Air Pollution ,Air quality ,Communicable Disease Control ,Humans ,Environmental Pollutants ,Cities ,Desenvolupament humà i sostenible::Degradació ambiental::Contaminació atmosfèrica [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC] ,Air -- Pollution ,Road traffic - Abstract
COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) hit Europe in January 2020. By March, Europe was the active centre of the pandemic. As a result, widespread "lockdown" measures were enforced across the various European countries, even if to a different extent. Such actions caused a dramatic reduction, especially in road traffic. This event can be considered the most significant experiment ever conducted in Europe to assess the impact of a massive switch-off of atmospheric pollutant sources. In this study, we focus on in situ concentration data of the main atmospheric pollutants measured in twelve European cities, characterized by different climatology, emission sources, and strengths. We propose a methodology for the fair comparison of the impact of lockdown measures considering the non-stationarity of meteorological conditions and emissions, which are progressively declining due to the adoption of stricter air quality measures. The analysis of these unmatched circumstances allowed us to estimate the impact of a nearly zero-emission urban transport scenario on air quality in 12 European cities. The clearest result, common to all the cities, is that a dramatic traffic reduction effectively reduces NO2 concentrations. In contrast, each city’s PM and ozone concentrations can respond differently to the same type of emission reduction measure. From the policy point of view, these findings suggest that measures targeting urban traffic alone may not be the only effective option for improving air quality in cities. Peer Reviewed Article signat per 19 autors/es: Marialuisa Volta 1, Umberto Giostra 2, Giorgio Guariso 3, Jose Baldasano 4, Martin Lutz 5, Andreas Kerschbaumer 5, Annette Rauterberg-Wulff 5, Francisco Ferreira 6, Luısa Mendes 6, Joana Monjardino 6, Nicolas Moussiopοulos 7, Christos Vlachokostas 7, Peter Viaene 8, Janssen Stijn 8, Enrico Turrini 1, Elena De Angelis 1, Claudio Carnevale 1, Martin L. Williams 9, Michela Maione 2,10 // 1 Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Civile, Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy; 2 Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate, Università di Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy; 3 Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy; 4 Centro Nacional de Supercomputación, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain; 5 Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Mobilität, Verbraucher-und Klimaschutz, Berlin, Germany; 6 Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente, Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal; 7 Aristoteleio Panepistemio Thessalonikes, Thessalonike, Greece; 8 VITO, Vision on Technology, Mol, Belgium; 9 Environmental Research Group, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom; 10 Istituto di Scienze dell’Atmosfera e del Clima, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bologna, Italy
- Published
- 2022
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