Air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games David G. Streets, Joshua S. Fu, Carey J. Jang, Jiming Hao, Kebin He, Xiaoyan Tang, Yuanhang Zhang, Zifa Wang, Zuopan Li, Qiang Zhang, Litao Wang, Binyu Wang, Carolyne Yu
1. Full citation and abstract?
David G. Streetsa et al., Air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, ScienceDirect, 19 August 2006, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.08.046.
Abstract: Beijing will host the 2008 Summer Games of the XXIX Olympiad from August 8–24, 2008. China wishes to ensure a healthful and enjoyable experience for all. However, air pollution levels in the summertime in Beijing can be high.The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of sources outside Beijing to air pollution levels in summertime Beijing. The experts consider two of the most important regional
2. Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project. David G. Streetsa,_, Joshua S. Fub, Carey J. Jangc, Jiming Haod, Kebin Hed, Xiaoyan Tange, Yuanhang Zhange, Zifa Wangf, Zuopan Lib, Qiang Zhanga,d, Litao Wangd, Binyu Wangc, Carolyne Yua a: Decision and Information Sciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA b: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA c: Office of Air Quality Planning & Standards, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA d: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China e: College of Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China fInstitute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, PR China
3. What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report? The Beijing and National governments are introducing many new pollution control measures designed to reduce local emissions in Beijing, as specified by the Beijing Organizing Committee of the XXIX Olympic Games (BOCOG) (2004). Undoubtedly, by August 2008, local sources of air pollution will be considerably fewer than they are today. The purpose of the study is to examine the contribution of sources outside Beijing to air pollution levels in summertime Beijing. The experts consider two of the most important regional and urban air pollutants: fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O3). We examine the contributions of neighboring provinces and suggest priorities for addressing regional air pollution concerns.
4. Describe at least three ways that the argument is supported.
PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing have been found to be very high in comparison to the US NAAQS value of 65 mgm_3. Average daily PM2.5 concentrations in recent studies ranged from 91 to 169 mgm_3 (Bergin et al., 2001; Chan et al., 2005).
In this present work, Beijing’s air quality is simulated using the Models-3/Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system (Version 4.4), developed by the US EPA (Byun and Ching, 1999). The CMAQ model has received many applications and evaluations in the US and other countries for regional- and urban-scale air quality simulations, integrating a number of air quality issues (particulate matter, ozone, acid deposition, visibility, air toxics, etc.) into a so-called ‘‘oneatmosphere’’ approach.
The driving meteorological inputs for this work are provided by the fifth generation NCAR/Penn State Mesoscale Model (MM5), version 3.6.2. The pollution episode studied is from July 1–31, 2001, with a spin-up period of 5 days starting on June 26, 2001.
5. What three (or more) quotes capture the message of the article or report?
“Based on the US EPA’s Models-3/CMAQ model simulation over the Beijing region, the experts estimate that about 34% of PM2.5 on average and 35–60% of ozone during high ozone episodes at the Olympic Stadium site can be attributed to sources outside Beijing.”
“Neighboring Hebei and Shandong Provinces and the Tianjin Municipality all exert significant influence on Beijing’s air quality. During sustained wind flow from the south, Hebei Province can contribute 50–70% of Beijing’s PM2.5 concentrations and 20–30% of ozone. Controlling only local sources in Beijing will not be sufficient to attain the air quality goal set for the Beijing Olympics. There is an urgent need for regional air quality management studies and new emission control strategies to ensure that the air quality goals for 2008 are met.”
“There is no doubt that the measures planned to limit air pollution in Beijing will greatly improve Beijing’s air quality for the period of the 2008 Olympic Games. But will they be sufficient to achieve the stated objectives? This study shows that, even in the limit that Beijing generates no manmade emissions, levels of fine PM and ozone could still be high and could exceed healthful levels under unfavorable meteorological conditions.”
6. What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report?
Beijing’s air quality is simulated using the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system (Version 4.4), developed by the US EPA (Byun and Ching, 1999).The CMAQ model was initially evaluated by comparing predicted daily PM10 concentrations for July 2001 against Air Pollution Index (API) data measured by the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center (Fig. 1). In addition, predicted PM2.5 concentrations were compared against a set of weekly measurements of PM2.5 mass and component species obtained at a monitoring site located at Tsinghua University, Beijing. In general, the agreement between modeled and observed data was good, and the model was able to capture the trends of daily and weekly variations of PM2.5 and PM10. The model slightly under-predicted PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations, which might be due to an underestimation of local emissions but could be a model resolution issue; observations are based on a sparse set of point measurements, whereas model simulations are based on a volume average over unit grid cells.
Fig. 1: Comparison of CMAQ model simulations for PM10 concentrations in the City of Beijing and at the Olympic Stadium site against observations derived from API data.
Fig. 2 shows that monthly average PM2.5 concentrations under base-case conditions are in excess of 30 mgm3 over most of the Beijing Municipality, rising to 470 mgm_3 in the Beijing urban center. The steep concentration gradients reveal the important role of local urban sources in determining the ambient PM2.5 level. Sources outside Beijing (center left frame of Fig. 4) contribute a consistent level of 420 mgm3 to Beijing PM2.5 levels.
Fig. 2: CMAQ model simulations of monthly average concentrations of PM2.5 (left) and maximum hourly concentrations of ozone (right) in the Beijing area for July 2001. Top frames show simulations for emissions from all sources; center frames show contributions from sources outside Beijing (Beijing emissions removed); bottom frames show the differences between top and center frames, which may be considered to approximately represent the contributions from Beijing sources alone.
The ozone simulations show that maximum hourly ozone concentrations exceeded the China Grade II standard of _100 ppb for one episode at the Olympic Stadium (July 6, 117 ppb) and came very close to 100 ppb on two other occasions (July 15 and 20). The influence of regional sources is more pronounced than for PM2.5 and more complex. Simulations show considerable day-to-day fluctuation of maximum hourly ozone concentrations within a range of _20–120 ppb. Simulations with Beijing man-made emissions removed show more stable values of _50–80 ppb, reflecting the large scale buildup of ozone in eastern China during the summertime (Mauzerall et al., 2000; Luo et al., 2000).
Fig. 3: CMAQ model simulations of daily average PM2.5 concentrations and maximum hourly ozone concentrations at the Olympic Stadium site in Beijing for July 2001.
7. How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?
There is a concern that much of the air pollution experienced in Beijing is regional in nature and not attributable to local sources. Thus, control measures implemented only in Beijing may not reduce ambient pollutant concentrations to acceptable levels.
8. Where has this article or report been referenced or discussed? (In some journals, you can see this in a sidebar.)
Yuepeng Pan, Shili Tian, Xingru Li, Ying Sun, Yi Li, Gregory R. Wentworth, Yuesi Wang: “Trace elements in particulate matter from metropolitan regions of Northern China: Sources, concentrations and size distributions.” SciencDirect, 12 August 2015, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.07.060.
9. Can you learn anything from the article or report’s bibliography that tells us something about how the article or report was produced?
The bibliography is about the idea of 2008 Olympic Games which is which is the evet that the experts focus on. There are also some documents about air quality of China, especially in the part of PM2.5 and ozone, these are two areas the study measured.
David G. Streets, Joshua S. Fu, Carey J. Jang, Jiming Hao, Kebin He,
Xiaoyan Tang, Yuanhang Zhang, Zifa Wang, Zuopan Li, Qiang Zhang,
Litao Wang, Binyu Wang, Carolyne Yu
1. Full citation and abstract?
2. Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project.
David G. Streetsa,_, Joshua S. Fub, Carey J. Jangc, Jiming Haod, Kebin Hed,
Xiaoyan Tange, Yuanhang Zhange, Zifa Wangf, Zuopan Lib, Qiang Zhanga,d,
Litao Wangd, Binyu Wangc, Carolyne Yua
a: Decision and Information Sciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
b: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
c: Office of Air Quality Planning & Standards, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
d: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
e: College of Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China
fInstitute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, PR China
3. What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?
The Beijing and National governments are introducing many new pollution control measures designed to reduce local emissions in Beijing, as specified by the Beijing Organizing Committee of the XXIX Olympic Games (BOCOG) (2004). Undoubtedly, by August 2008, local sources of air pollution will be considerably fewer than they are today. The purpose of the study is to examine the contribution of sources outside Beijing to air pollution levels in summertime Beijing. The experts consider two of the most important regional and urban air pollutants: fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O3). We examine the contributions of neighboring provinces and suggest priorities for addressing regional air pollution concerns.
4. Describe at least three ways that the argument is supported.
5. What three (or more) quotes capture the message of the article or report?
6. What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report?
Fig. 1: Comparison of CMAQ model simulations for PM10 concentrations in the City of Beijing and at the Olympic Stadium site against observations derived from API data.
Fig. 2: CMAQ model simulations of monthly average concentrations of PM2.5 (left) and maximum hourly concentrations of ozone (right) in the Beijing area for July 2001. Top frames show simulations for emissions from all sources; center frames show contributions from sources outside Beijing (Beijing emissions removed); bottom frames show the differences between top and center frames, which may be considered to approximately represent the contributions from Beijing sources alone.
Fig. 3: CMAQ model simulations of daily average PM2.5 concentrations and maximum hourly ozone concentrations at the Olympic Stadium site in Beijing for July 2001.
7. How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?
There is a concern that much of the air pollution experienced in Beijing is regional in nature and not attributable to local sources. Thus, control measures implemented only in Beijing may not reduce ambient pollutant concentrations to acceptable levels.
8. Where has this article or report been referenced or discussed? (In some journals, you can see this in a sidebar.)
Yuepeng Pan, Shili Tian, Xingru Li, Ying Sun, Yi Li, Gregory R. Wentworth, Yuesi Wang: “Trace elements in particulate matter from metropolitan regions of Northern China: Sources, concentrations and size distributions.” SciencDirect, 12 August 2015, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.07.060.
9. Can you learn anything from the article or report’s bibliography that tells us something about how the article or report was produced?
The bibliography is about the idea of 2008 Olympic Games which is which is the evet that the experts focus on. There are also some documents about air quality of China, especially in the part of PM2.5 and ozone, these are two areas the study measured.