{"title":"Incorporating dynamic population activities in modeling exposure to urban air pollution: insights from COVID-19 lockdowns in three European cities","authors":"Martin Otto Paul Ramacher","doi":"10.1007/s11869-025-01707-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to global lockdown measures, significantly changing population activity patterns and providing an unprecedented situation to study their effects on air quality. Previous studies primarily focused on pollutant concentration changes, often neglecting the influence of modified population activities on exposure estimates. This study aims to evaluate the impact of changes in time-activity patterns on population exposures to NO<sub>2</sub>, O<sub>3</sub>, and PM<sub>2.5</sub> in three urban European areas during the first lockdowns in March and April of 2020. A comprehensive hybrid exposure model was used, integrating urban-scale air pollutant dispersion data with diurnal population activity, accounting for both concentration and population activity changes due to lockdown measures. Population-weighted exposures and total time-integrated exposure levels were assessed for Hamburg, Germany, Liège, Belgium, and Marseille, France. The lockdown measures led to significant reductions in NO<sub>2</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations while increasing O<sub>3</sub> concentrations. Adjusting for population activity changes showed additional hourly population weighted exposure reductions for NO<sub>2</sub> by up to 6% and for O<sub>3</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub> by up to 7%, while total time-integrated exposure was additionally reduced for NO<sub>2</sub> (up to 3%), O<sub>3</sub> (up to 8%) and PM<sub>2.5</sub> (up to 7%). These findings highlight the importance of incorporating dynamic population activity data for more accurate exposure and health impact assessments, especially in urban areas. The study highlights that exposure estimated at residential addresses likely underestimate exposure and related health effects.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49109,"journal":{"name":"Air Quality Atmosphere and Health","volume":"18 5","pages":"1507 - 1526"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11869-025-01707-6.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Air Quality Atmosphere and Health","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11869-025-01707-6","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to global lockdown measures, significantly changing population activity patterns and providing an unprecedented situation to study their effects on air quality. Previous studies primarily focused on pollutant concentration changes, often neglecting the influence of modified population activities on exposure estimates. This study aims to evaluate the impact of changes in time-activity patterns on population exposures to NO2, O3, and PM2.5 in three urban European areas during the first lockdowns in March and April of 2020. A comprehensive hybrid exposure model was used, integrating urban-scale air pollutant dispersion data with diurnal population activity, accounting for both concentration and population activity changes due to lockdown measures. Population-weighted exposures and total time-integrated exposure levels were assessed for Hamburg, Germany, Liège, Belgium, and Marseille, France. The lockdown measures led to significant reductions in NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations while increasing O3 concentrations. Adjusting for population activity changes showed additional hourly population weighted exposure reductions for NO2 by up to 6% and for O3 and PM2.5 by up to 7%, while total time-integrated exposure was additionally reduced for NO2 (up to 3%), O3 (up to 8%) and PM2.5 (up to 7%). These findings highlight the importance of incorporating dynamic population activity data for more accurate exposure and health impact assessments, especially in urban areas. The study highlights that exposure estimated at residential addresses likely underestimate exposure and related health effects.
期刊介绍:
Air Quality, Atmosphere, and Health is a multidisciplinary journal which, by its very name, illustrates the broad range of work it publishes and which focuses on atmospheric consequences of human activities and their implications for human and ecological health.
It offers research papers, critical literature reviews and commentaries, as well as special issues devoted to topical subjects or themes.
International in scope, the journal presents papers that inform and stimulate a global readership, as the topic addressed are global in their import. Consequently, we do not encourage submission of papers involving local data that relate to local problems. Unless they demonstrate wide applicability, these are better submitted to national or regional journals.
Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health addresses such topics as acid precipitation; airborne particulate matter; air quality monitoring and management; exposure assessment; risk assessment; indoor air quality; atmospheric chemistry; atmospheric modeling and prediction; air pollution climatology; climate change and air quality; air pollution measurement; atmospheric impact assessment; forest-fire emissions; atmospheric science; greenhouse gases; health and ecological effects; clean air technology; regional and global change and satellite measurements.
This journal benefits a diverse audience of researchers, public health officials and policy makers addressing problems that call for solutions based in evidence from atmospheric and exposure assessment scientists, epidemiologists, and risk assessors. Publication in the journal affords the opportunity to reach beyond defined disciplinary niches to this broader readership.