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Characterization of air pollution in urban areas of Yangtze River Delta, China

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Abstract

The hallmark of development in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) of East China has been sprawling urbanization. However, air pollution is a significant problem in these urban areas. In this paper, we investigated and analyzed the air pollution index (API) in four cities (Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Ningbo) in the YRD from 2001 to 2012. We attempted to empirically examine the relationship between meteorological factors and air quality in the urban areas of the YRD. According to the monitoring data, the API in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou slightly declined and that in Ningbo increased over the study period. We analyzed the inter-annual, seasonal, and monthly variations of API, from which we found that the air quality had different temporal changes in the four cities. It was indicated that air quality was poor in winter and spring and best in summer. Furthermore, different weather conditions affected air quality level. The wind direction was considered as an important and influential factor to air pollution, which has an impact on the accumulating or cleaning processes of pollutants. The air quality was influenced by the different wind directions that varied with seasons and cities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Tan Chen, Shulin Deng, Yu Gao, Lean Qu, Manchun Li & Dong Chen

  2. Department of Geographic Information Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Tan Chen, Shulin Deng, Yu Gao, Lean Qu, Manchun Li & Dong Chen

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Shulin Deng & Manchun Li

  4. College of Territorial Resources and Tourism, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, China

    Lean Qu

Authors
  1. Tan Chen
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  2. Shulin Deng
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  3. Yu Gao
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  4. Lean Qu
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  5. Manchun Li
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  6. Dong Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manchun Li.

Additional information

Foundation item: Under the auspices of Special Research Fund of the Ministry of Land and Resources for the Non-Profit Sector (No. 201411014-03), National Key Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2012BAH28B04)

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Chen, T., Deng, S., Gao, Y. et al. Characterization of air pollution in urban areas of Yangtze River Delta, China. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 27, 836–846 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-017-0900-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-017-0900-z

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