Abstract
Air quality improvement in Los Angeles, California is reviewed with an emphasis on aspects that may inform air quality policy formulation in developing cities. In the mid-twentieth century the air quality in Los Angeles was degraded to an extent comparable to the worst found in developing cities today; ozone exceeded 600 ppb and annual average particulate matter <10 μm reached ~150 mg∙m–3. Today's air quality is much better due to very effective emission controls; e.g., modern automobiles emit about 1% of the hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emitted by vehicles of 50 years ago. An overview is given of the emission control efforts in Los Angeles and their impact on ambient concentrations of primary and secondary pollutants; the costs and health benefits of these controls are briefly summarized. Today's developing cities have new challenges that are discussed: the effects of regional pollution transport are much greater in countries with very high population densities; often very large current populations must be supplied with goods and services even while economic development and air quality concerns are addressed; and many of currently developing cities are located in or close to the tropics where photochemical processing of pollution is expected to be more rapid than at higher latitudes. The air quality issues of Beijing are briefly compared and contrasted with those of Los Angeles, and the opportunities for co-benefits for climate and air quality improvement are pointed out.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
World Health Organization. Burden of disease from Ambient Air Pollution for 2012, http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/ databases/AAP_BoD_results_March2014.pdf, 2014
Helfand W H, Lazarus J, Theerman P. Donora, Pennsylvania: an environmental disaster of the 20th century. American Journal of Public Health, 2001, 91(4): 553
Bell M L, Davis D L. Reassessment of the lethal London fog of 1952: novel indicators of acute and chronic consequences of acute exposure to air pollution. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2001, 109(3 Suppl 3): 389–394
SCAQMD. Historic Ozone Air Quality Trends, http://www.aqmd. gov/home/library/air-quality-data-studies/historic-ozone-air-quality- trends, 2015
California Air Resources Board. Ozone Trends Summary: South Coast Air Basin (http://www.arb.ca.gov/adam/trends/trends2.php), 2015
Cooper O R, Langford A O, Parrish D D, Fahey D W. Atmosphere. Challenges of a lowered U.S. ozone standard. Science, 2015, 348 (6239): 1096–1097
Parrish D D, Newman M H, Aikin K C, Ryerson T B. Temporal evolution of baseline ozone and anthropogenic enhancements in California's coastal air basins. Environmental Science & Technology, 2016, (submitted)
Pollack I B, Ryerson T B, Trainer M, Neuman J A, Roberts J M, Parrish D D. Trends in ozone, its precursors, and related secondary oxidation products in Los Angeles, California: a synthesis of measurements from 1960 to 2010. Journal of Geophysical Research, D, Atmospheres, 2013, 118 (11): 5893–5911
Pfister G G, Parrish D, Worden H, Emmons L K, Edwards D P, Wiedinmyer C, Diskin G S, Huey G, Oltmans S J, Thouret V, Weinheimer A, Wisthaler A. Characterizing summertime chemical boundary conditions for airmasses entering the US West Coast. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2011, 11 (4): 1769–1790
Warneke C, de Gouw J A, Holloway J S, Peischl J, Ryerson T B, Atlas E, Blake D, Trainer M, Parrish D D. Multi-year trends in volatile organic compounds in Los Angeles, California: five decades of improving air quality. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2012, 117: (D00V17), doi: 10.1029/2012JD017899
National Research Council. Energy Futures and Urban Air Pollution: Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id = 12001, 2007
Hoggan M. SoCAB Report: Air Quality Trends in California's South Coast Air Basin1965–1981, 1982
Ying Q, Kleeman M J. Source contributions to the regional distribution of secondary particulate matter in California. Atmospheric Environment, 2006, 40 (4): 736–752
SCAQMD. History of Air Pollution Control in Southern California, http://www.aqmd.gov/home/library/public-information/publications/ history-of-air-pollution-control, 1997
California Air Resources Board. 2014 Enforcement Report (http:// www.arb.ca.gov/enf/reports/2014_annual_enf_report.pdf), 2015
Hall J V, BrajerV, Lurmann F W. The Benefits of Meeting Federal Clean Air Standards in the South Coast and San Joaquin Air Basins. Institute for Economic and Environmental Studies at California State University Fullerton. http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/mch/asthmacoalition/docs/BenefitsofMeetingCleanAirStandards_11_06_08.pdf, 2008
Hall J V, Brajer V, Lurmann F W. Air pollution, health and economic benefits—Lessons from 20 years of analysis. Ecological Economics, 2010, 69 (12): 2590–2597
Parrish D D, Stockwell W R. Urbanization and air pollution: then and now, Eos: Earth & Space. Science News, 2015, 96: 10–15
Lamsal L N, Martin R V, Parrish D D, Krotkov N A. Scaling relationship for NO2 pollution and urban population size: a satellite perspective. Environmental Science & Technology, 2013, 47 (14): 7855–7861
Guinnup D, Collom B. 1997. Telling the OTAG ozone story with data. http://capita.wustl.edu/OTAG/Reports/AQAFinVol_I/HTML/ v1_exsum7.html- _Toc389760087. (Last accessed: 02/16/16)
Parrish D D, Zhu T. Clean air for megacities. Science, 2009, 326 (5953): 674–675
Gwilliam K, Kojima M, Johnson T. Reducing Air Pollution from Urban Transport, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2004
Sathaye N, Harley R A, Madanat S. Unintended environmental impacts of nighttime freight logistics activities. Transportation Research Part A, Policy and Practice, 2010, 44 (8): 642–659
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, Highlights (ST/ESA/SER.A/352), 2014
International Monetary Fund. World Economic Outlook: Adjusting to Lower Commodity Prices. Washington (April and October) 2015
Fry M M, Naik V, West J J, Schwarzkopf M D, Fiore A M, Collins W J, Dentener F J, Shindell D T, Atherton C, Bergmann D, Duncan B N, Hess P, MacKenzie I A, Marmer E, Schultz M G, Szopa S, Wild O, Zeng G. The influence of ozone precursor emissions from four world regions on tropospheric composition and radiative climate forcing. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2012, 117(D7): D07306
Duncan B N, Lamsal L N, Thompson AM, Yoshida Y, Lu Z, Streets D G, Hurwitz M M, Pickering K E. A space-based, high-resolution view of notable changes in urban NOx pollution around the world (2005–2014). Journal of Geophysical Research, D, Atmospheres, 2016, 121, doi:10.1002/2015JD024121
Wang T, Ding A J, Gao J, Wu W S. Strong ozone production in urban plumes from Beijing, China. Geophysical Research Letters, 2006, 33(21): L21806
Zheng G J, Duan F K, Su H, Ma Y L, Cheng Y, Zheng B, Zhang Q, Huang T, Kimoto T, Chang D, Pöschl U, Cheng Y F, He K B. Exploring the severe winter haze in Beijing: the impact of synoptic weather, regional transport and heterogeneous reactions. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2015, 15 (6): 2969–2983
Shao M, Tang X Y, Zhang Y H, Li W J. Air and surface water pollution of city clusters in China: current situation and challenges. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2006, 7 (4): 353–361
Zhang Q, Yuan B, Shao M, Wang X, Lu S, Lu K, Wang M, Chen L, Chang C C, Liu S C. Variations of ground-level O3 and its precursors in Beijing in summertime between 2005 and 2011. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2014, 14 (12): 6089–6101
Wang S, Zhao M, Xing J, Wu Y, Zhou Y, Lei Y, He K, Fu L, Hao J. Quantifying the air pollutants emission reduction during the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. Environmental Science & Technology, 2010, 44 (7): 2490–2496
Wang W, Primbs T, Tao S, Simonich S L M. Atmospheric particulate matter pollution during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Environmental Science & Technology, 2009, 43 (14): 5314–5320
Wang Y, Hao J, McElroy MB, Munger JW, Ma H, Chen D, Nielsen C P. Ozone air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: effectiveness of emission restrictions. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2009, 9 (14): 5237–5251
Shen J, Tang A, Liu X, Kopsch J, Fangmeier A, Goulding K, Zhang F. Impacts of pollution controls on air quality in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games. Journal of Environmental Quality, 2011, 40 (1): 37–45
Rich D Q, Kipen HM, Huang W, Wang G, Wang Y, Zhu P, Ohman-Strickland P, Hu M, Philipp C, Diehl S R, Lu S E, Tong J, Gong J, Thomas D, Zhu T, Zhang J J. Association between changes in air pollution levels during the Beijing Olympics and biomarkers of inflammation and thrombosis in healthy young adults. Journal of the American Medical Association, 2012, 307 (19): 2068–2078
Wang T, Nie W, Gao J, Xue L K, Gao X M, Wang X, Qiu J, Poon C N, Meinardi S, Blake D, Wang S L, Ding A J, Chai F H, Zhang Q Z, Wang W X. Air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: secondary pollutants and regional impact. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2010, 10 (16): 7603–7615
Brauch H G, Spring U O, Mesjasz C, Grin J, Kameri-Mbote P, Chourou B, Dunay P, Birkmann J, eds. Coping with global environmental change, disasters and security: threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks. Vol 5. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media, 2011
Zhu T, Melamed M, Parrish D D, Gauss M. Gallardo Klenner L. Lawrence M. Konare A. Liousse C. GAW Report No. 205. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization Global Atmosphere Watch, 2012
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Parrish, D.D., Xu, J., Croes, B. et al. Air quality improvement in Los Angeles—perspectives for developing cities. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 10, 11 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-016-0859-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-016-0859-5