The impact of winter heating on air pollution in China

Qingyang Xiao; Zongwei Ma; Shenshen Li; Yang Liu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117311

The impact of winter heating on air pollution in China

PLoS One. 2015 Jan 28;10(1):e0117311. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117311. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Qingyang Xiao¹, Zongwei Ma², Shenshen Li³, Yang Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
² Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America; State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
³ Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America; State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Fossil-fuel combustion related winter heating has become a major air quality and public health concern in northern China recently. We analyzed the impact of winter heating on aerosol loadings over China using the MODIS-Aqua Collection 6 aerosol product from 2004-2012. Absolute humidity (AH) and planetary boundary layer height (PBL) -adjusted aerosol optical depth (AOD*) was constructed to reflect ground-level PM2.5 concentrations. GIS analysis, standard statistical tests, and statistical modeling indicate that winter heating is an important factor causing increased PM2.5 levels in more than three-quarters of central and eastern China. The heating season AOD* was more than five times higher as the non-heating season AOD*, and the increase in AOD* in the heating areas was greater than in the non-heating areas. Finally, central heating tend to contribute less to air pollution relative to other means of household heating.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants / analysis*
Air Pollution / analysis*
China
Environmental Monitoring
Heating*
Models, Statistical
Seasons*

Substances

Air Pollutants

Grants and funding

This publication was made possible by USEPA grant R834799 (http://www.epa.gov/ord/airscience/air-cleanairresearchcenters.htm). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the grantee and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USEPA. Further, USEPA does not endorse the purchase of any commercial products or services mentioned in the publication. The work of Q. Xiao was partly supported by the Rollins Earn and Learn program (http://sph.emory.edu/current_students/REAL/index.html). Additional funding was received from the NASA Applied Sciences Program (grant no. NNX11AI53G, PI: Yang Liu, http://www.nasa.gov/applied-sciences/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.