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. 2020 Mar 25;10(1):5423.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-62475-0.

Analyses of air pollution control measures and co-benefits in the heavily air-polluted Jinan city of China, 2013-2017

Liangliang Cui  1   2 , Jingwen Zhou  1 , Xiumiao Peng  1 , Shiman Ruan  3 , Ying Zhang  4
Affiliations

Analyses of air pollution control measures and co-benefits in the heavily air-polluted Jinan city of China, 2013-2017

Liangliang Cui et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

China has made great efforts in air pollution control since 2013. However, there is a lack of evaluation of environmental, health and economic co-benefits associated with the national and local air pollution control measures at a city level. We analyzed local air pollution control policies and implementation in Jinan, one of the most heavily air-polluted cities in China between 2013 and 2017. We assessed the changes in exhaust emissions, air quality, mortality and morbidity of associated specific-diseases, and related economic benefits. We also projected the future scenarios of PM2.5 concentration dropped to 15 μg/m3. There were significant decreases in exhaust emissions of SO2 and NOx in Jinan during the study period. Annual reductions in ambient air pollution were 72.6% for SO2, 43.1% for PM2.5, and 34.2% for PM10. A total of 2,317 (95%CI: 1,533-2,842) premature deaths and 15,822 (95%CI: 8,734-23,990) related morbidity cases had been avoided in 2017, leading to a total of US$ 317.7 million (95%CI: 227.5-458.1) in economic benefits. Decreasing PM2.5 concentrations to 15 μg/m3 would result in reductions of 70% in total PM2.5-related non-accidental mortality and 95% in total PM2.5-related morbidity, which translates into US$ 1,289.5 million (95%CI: 825.8-1,673.6) in economic benefits. The national and local air pollution control measures have brought significant environmental, health and economic benefits to a previously heavy polluted Chinese city.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Methodological framework of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Jinan map and location of air pollution monitoring stations. Map was performed using R software (version 3.2.2, https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/CRAN/). The packages of mapdata (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/mapdata/index.html), maps (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/maps/index.html) and ggmap (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggmap/) were applied.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Air pollution control measures in Jinan and directly-related effectiveness, 2013–2017. (a) Changes in total environmental investment and average investment per person. (b) Changes in adjustment of industrial structure. (c) Changes in fuel and raw materials production. (d) Changes in centralized-heating area. (e) Changes in natural gas supply. (f) Changes in urban landscaping coverage (%) and park green area per person (m2).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percent changes (%) in annual mean concentration of air pollutants in Jinan, 2013–2017.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Spatial distribution of ambient PM2.5 annual concentration in Jinan, 2013–2017. Map was performed using R software (version 3.2.2, https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/CRAN/). The packages of mapdata (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/mapdata/index.html), maps (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/maps/index.html) and ggmap (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggmap/) were applied.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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