A preliminary analysis of changes in outdoor air quality in the City of Southampton during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak to date: a response to DEFRA’s Call for Evidence1 on Estimation of changes in air pollution emissions, concentrations and exposure during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK.
A preliminary analysis of changes in outdoor air quality in the City of Southampton during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak to date: a response to DEFRA’s Call for Evidence1 on Estimation of changes in air pollution emissions, concentrations and exposure during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK.
Overall we find that:
• 2020 was already a ‘cleaner air’ year compared to the 2017-2019 average;
• Covid-19 lockdown appears to be amplifying this trend for NO family pollutant emissions with some days recording up to 92% lower NO2 levels than the 2017-2019 average.
However, other days show substantially higher air pollution levels compared to both pre- lockdown and previous years and this is particularly noticeable for levels of PM10 and PM2.5. These periods appear to correlate with certain wind conditions and highlight the importance of meteorological affects and/or pollution sources that are not affected by lockdown. Were it not for these conditions/sources, it seems likely that the lockdown affect in Southampton would be consistent and sustained.
More sophisticated analysis that can control for differing meteorological conditions, variable public holidays (i.e. Easter) and account for other sources of pollutants will be needed to determine the true significance of lockdown affects. We are in the process of collating data and developing statistical models that can be used to do this.
University of Southampton
Anderson, Ben
01e98bbd-b402-48b0-b83e-142341a39b2d
Dirks, Kim
ecf1d0cf-4932-4a63-8bfe-de73c85c3bcc
May 2020
Anderson, Ben
01e98bbd-b402-48b0-b83e-142341a39b2d
Dirks, Kim
ecf1d0cf-4932-4a63-8bfe-de73c85c3bcc
Anderson, Ben and Dirks, Kim
(2020)
A preliminary analysis of changes in outdoor air quality in the City of Southampton during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak to date: a response to DEFRA’s Call for Evidence1 on Estimation of changes in air pollution emissions, concentrations and exposure during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK.
Southampton.
University of Southampton
11pp.
Record type:
Monograph
(Project Report)
Abstract
Overall we find that:
• 2020 was already a ‘cleaner air’ year compared to the 2017-2019 average;
• Covid-19 lockdown appears to be amplifying this trend for NO family pollutant emissions with some days recording up to 92% lower NO2 levels than the 2017-2019 average.
However, other days show substantially higher air pollution levels compared to both pre- lockdown and previous years and this is particularly noticeable for levels of PM10 and PM2.5. These periods appear to correlate with certain wind conditions and highlight the importance of meteorological affects and/or pollution sources that are not affected by lockdown. Were it not for these conditions/sources, it seems likely that the lockdown affect in Southampton would be consistent and sustained.
More sophisticated analysis that can control for differing meteorological conditions, variable public holidays (i.e. Easter) and account for other sources of pollutants will be needed to determine the true significance of lockdown affects. We are in the process of collating data and developing statistical models that can be used to do this.
Text
Anderson Dirks 2020 DEFRA Air Qual Evidence Response Southampton
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Published date: May 2020
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Local EPrints ID: 439813
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/439813
PURE UUID: 2bc7a185-ed40-478c-b83f-61a54e9d4dd0
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Date deposited: 05 May 2020 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:45
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Author:
Kim Dirks
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