Air quality benefits from multi-year changes in post-pandemic working and travel patterns
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
Air quality is significantly affected by levels of economic activity and wider patterns of industrial and domestic consumption. Whilst lower air pollution was frequently reported as a short-term consequence of lockdown, less well quantified are the potential longer term improvements in urban air quality that may arise from more sustained shifts in behavioural patterns during the recovery phase and beyond. For example, these may arise from changed commuting modes, office and school times, and continuation of homeworking. Altered air pollution emissions in cities, even if only sustained for a few years, may deliver disproportionately front-loaded benefits. As the UK transitions towards transport electrification and older vehicles leave the fleet, it is in the years immediately following the pandemic that the largest benefits to air quality are likely to be felt. Lower air pollution during the lockdown phase of the pandemic was not surprising, with NO2 falling widely across the UK. More surprising has been the recent divergence between increasing traffic volumes and the rebound in pollution as restrictions on society have lifted. Understanding the mechanisms behind this, and the potential air quality and public health opportunities, lies at the heart of this proposal. This research is ideally conducted at a time once most the significant lockdown restrictions have been lifted and specifically once schools (and their related transport have resumed). It is therefore timed to begin towards the end of 2020. The real-world impacts of this research may be highly significant, allowing an evaluation changing urban emissions regimes.
Organisations
Publications
| Description | We calculate that NO2 reduced by 42 %±9.8 % on average across all 126 urban AURN sites, with a slightly larger (48 %±9.5 %) reduction at sites close to the roadside (urban traffic). We also find that ozone (O3) increased by 11 % on average across the urban background network during the lockdown period. Total oxidant levels () increased only slightly on average (3.2 %±0.2 %), suggesting the majority of this change can be attributed to photochemical repartitioning due to the reduction in NOx. Generally, we find larger, positive Ox changes in southern UK cities, which we attribute to increased UV radiation and temperature in 2020 compared to previous years. The net effect of the NO2 and O3 changes is a sharp decrease in exceedances of the NO2 air quality objective limit for the UK, with only one exceedance in London in 2020 up until the end of May. Concurrent increases in O3 exceedances in London emphasize the potential for O3 to become an air pollutant of concern as NOx emissions are reduced in the next 10-20 years. |
| Exploitation Route | this is a real world example that could be used to assess how reduction in traffic in the future might affect air pollution. |
| Sectors | Environment,Transport |