气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Visibility as a proxy for air quality in East Africa

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DOI	10.1088/1748-9326/ab8b12
	Visibility as a proxy for air quality in East Africa
	Singh A.; Avis W.R.; Pope F.D.
发表日期	2020
ISSN	17489318
卷号	15 期号:8
英文摘要	Many urban areas in Africa do not have sufficient monitoring programs to understand their air quality. This study uses visibility as a proxy for PM pollution to provide insight into PM air pollution in three East African cities: Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Kampala, from 1974 to 2018. Overall, a significant loss in East African visibility was observed since the 1970s, where Nairobi shows the greatest loss (60%), as compared to Kampala (56%) and Addis Ababa (34%). These changes are likely due to increased anthropogenic PM emissions. Correspondingly, PM pollution levels, in Kampala, Nairobi and Addis Ababa, are estimated to have increased by 162, 182 and 62%, respectively, since the 1970s to the current period. Distinct variations in seasonal visibility are observed, which are largely explained by changing PM sources and sinks in rainy and dry seasons. Average PM hygroscopicity is investigated by comparing average visibilities under different RH conditions. It is observed that PM hygroscopicity has decreased over time in all three cities, which is consistent with increasing emissions of PM with hygroscopicity lower than the ambient background. A large urban increment in PM is observed, with poor visibility typically occurring when the wind brings air from densely populated urban areas. To investigate the intersection between increasing pollution, population and economic growth, changes in pollution are compared to available population growth and GDP statistics. Significant positive correlations between increasing PM and national GDP (and city population) were found for all three study cities. These cities have undergone rapid increases in population and national GDP growth (driven predominantly by study cities' economies) during the study period. This has resulted in increased rates of citywide fuel use and motorization, which provides a direct link to increased PM emissions and thus visibility loss. The study suggests that socio-economic forecasts may enable future air quality projections. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
英文关键词	air pollution; East Africa; environmental kuznet's curve; particulate matter; PM; visibility
语种	英语
scopus关键词	Air quality; Economics; Particulate emissions; Visibility; Economic growths; Monitoring programs; Pm pollutions; Poor visibility; Population growth; Positive correlations; Socio-economic forecasts; Visibility loss; Population statistics; air quality; atmospheric pollution; particulate matter; visibility; East Africa
来源期刊	Environmental Research Letters
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/153904
作者单位	School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom; International Development Department, School of Government, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Singh A.,Avis W.R.,Pope F.D.. Visibility as a proxy for air quality in East Africa[J],2020,15(8).
APA	Singh A.,Avis W.R.,&Pope F.D..(2020).Visibility as a proxy for air quality in East Africa.Environmental Research Letters,15(8).
MLA	Singh A.,et al."Visibility as a proxy for air quality in East Africa".Environmental Research Letters 15.8(2020).