Anthropogenic Drivers of Hourly Air Pollutant Change in an Urban Environment during 2019–2021—A Case Study in Wuhan

Abstract

Wuhan experienced a noticeable enhancement in air quality from January to April 2020 due to the epidemic lockdown. The improvement was a combined result of anthropogenic emission reduction and meteorological variability. Environmental policymakers are often concerned about the impact of industrial production and human activities on improvements in environmental sustainability. This study split and quantified the impact of anthropogenic emissions on the pollution level changes of six major air pollutants (CO, SO2, NO2, O3, PM10, and PM2.5) for the first half year of 2019 to 2021 in Wuhan with an improved meteorological normalization algorithm. The results show sharp decreases in anthropogenic pollutant loads during 2020, except for O3, with the ranking of NO2 > PM10 > SO2 > CO > PM2.5. The decrease in NO2 emissions caused by humans was more than 50% compared to 2019. The low NO2 led to a decrease in O3 consumption, resulting in high O3 concentrations from February to April 2020 during the city lockdown. Moreover, except O3, the impact of anthropogenic and weather influences on air pollution exhibited opposing effects; that is, meteorology tended to aggravate pollution, while human intervention was conducive to improving air quality, and human factors played the dominant role. Of all six pollutants, O3 is the one that is relatively least subject to anthropogenic emissions. Although concentrations of SO2, NO2, PM10, and PM2.5 rebounded in 2021, none of them were able to return to their pre-lockdown levels, suggesting the epidemic’s continuous inhibition of people’s activities. Compared with 2019 and 2021, the atmospheric oxidation capacity and secondary aerosol formation showed an overall decreasing trend during 2020. This study provides a reference for assessing the effectiveness of anthropogenic emission reduction policies.