Comparative study on air quality status in Indian and Chinese cities before and during the COVID-19 lockdown period

• Published in: Air quality, atmosphere and health Vol. 13; no. 10; pp. 1167 - 1178
• Main Authors: Agarwal, Aviral, Kaushik, Aman, Kumar, Sankalp, Mishra, Rajeev Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air pollution; Air quality; Anthropogenic factors; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Cardiovascular diseases; Cities; Comparative studies; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Disease transmission; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Health; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Megacities; Nitrogen dioxide; Outdoor air quality; Pandemics; Particulate matter; Pollutants; Shelter in place; Urban air quality; Viruses; China; India; NO; Air quality index; COVID 19; PM; China; India; NO2; PM2.5
• ISSN: 1873-9318; 1873-9326
• DOI: 10.1007/s11869-020-00881-z

Amidst COVID-19 pandemic, extreme steps have been taken by countries globally. Lockdown enforcement has emerged as one of the mitigating measures to reduce the community spread of the virus. With a reduction in major anthropogenic activities, a visible improvement in air quality has been recorded in urban centres. Hazardous air quality in countries like India and China leads to high mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases. The present article deals with 6 megacities in India and 6 cities in Hubei province, China, where strict lockdown measures were imposed. The real-time concentration of PM 2.5 and NO 2 were recorded at different monitoring stations in the cities for 3 months, i.e. January, February, and March for China and February, March, and April for India. The concentration data is converted into AQI according to US EPA parameters and the monthly and weekly averages are calculated for all the cities. Cities in China and India after 1 week of lockdown recorded an average drop in AQI PM2.5 and AQI NO2 of 11.32% and 48.61% and 20.21% and 59.26%, respectively. The results indicate that the drop in AQI NO2 was instantaneous as compared with the gradual drop in AQI PM2.5 . The lockdown in China and India led to a final drop in AQI PM2.5 of 45.25% and 64.65% and in AQI NO2 of 37.42% and 65.80%, respectively. This study will assist the policymakers in devising a pathway to curb down air pollutant concentration in various urban cities by utilising the benchmark levels of air pollution.