Heterogeneous effects of COVID-19 lockdown measures on air quality in Northern China

Junfeng Wang*, Xiaoya Xu, Shimeng Wang, Shutong He, Xiao Li, Pan He

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

In response to the spread of COVID-19, China implemented a series of control measures. The causal effect of these control measures on air quality is an important consideration for extreme air pollution control in China. Here, we established a difference-in-differences model to quantitatively estimate the lockdown effect on air quality in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. We found that the lockdown measures did have an obvious effect on air quality. The air quality index (AQI) was reduced by 15.2%, the concentration of NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and CO were reduced by 37.8%, 33.6%, 21.5%, and 20.4% respectively. At the same time, we further explored the heterogeneous effects of travel restrictions and the control measure intensity on air quality. We found that the traffic restrictions, especially the restriction of intra-city travel intensity (TI), exhibited a significant heterogeneous effect on NO2 with a decrease of approximately 13.6%, and every one-unit increase in control measures intensity reduced the concentration of air pollutants by approximately 2–4%. This study not only provides a natural, experimental basis for control measures on air quality but also indicates an important direction for future control strategies. Importantly, determining the estimated effect helps formulate accurate and effective intervention measures on the differentiated level of air pollution, especially on extreme air pollution.

Original languageEnglish
Article number116179
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalApplied Energy
Volume282
Issue numberPart A
Early online date11 Nov 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jan 2021

Funding

This work was supported by the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation [grant number 18JCZDJC39900 ]; the Project of Tianjin Science and Technology Planning of China [grant number 18ZXSZSF00200]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 71373134 ]; the China Scholarship Council [grant number 201806200003 ]; and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities . Deepest gratitude goes to Dr Li of Yale University for his thoughtful suggestions which have helped improve this paper substantially.

FundersFunder number
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
China Scholarship Council201806200003
Project of Tianjin Science and Technology Planning of China18ZXSZSF00200
National Natural Science Foundation of China71373134
UK Research and Innovation104814
Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City18JCZDJC39900

    Keywords

    • Air pollution
    • Control measures intensity
    • COVID-19
    • Heterogeneous effect
    • Traffic restrictions

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