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Exploring the spatial effects and influencing mechanism of ozone concentration in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations of China

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Abstract

Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution has emerged as a significant concern impacting air quality in urban agglomerations, primarily driven by meteorological conditions and social-economic factors. However, previous studies have neglected to comprehensively reveal the spatial distribution and driving mechanism of O3 pollution. Based on the O3 monitoring data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2014 to 2021, a comprehensive analysis framework of spatial analysis-spatial econometric regression was constructed to reveal the driving mechanism of O3 pollution. The results revealed the following: (1) O3 concentrations in the YRD exhibited a general increasing and then decreasing trend, indicating an improvement in pollution levels. The areas with higher O3 concentration are mainly the cities concentrated in central and southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, and northern Zhejiang. (2) The change of O3 concentration and distribution is the result of various factors. The effect of urbanization on O3 concentrations followed an inverted U-shaped curve, which implies that achieving higher quality urbanization is essential for effectively controlling urban O3 pollution. Traffic conditions and energy consumption have significant direct positive influences on O3 concentrations and spatial spillover effects. The indirect pollution contribution, considering economic weight, accounted for about 35%. Thus, addressing overall regional energy consumption and implementing traffic source regulations are crucial paths for O3 pollution control in the YRD. (3) Meteorological conditions play a certain role in regulating the O3 concentration. Higher wind speed will promote the diffusion of O3 and increase the O3 concentration in the surrounding city. These findings provide valuable insights for designing effective policies to improve air quality and mitigate ozone pollution in urban agglomeration area.

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Funding

This work was supported by Soft Science Project of Zhejiang Science and Technology Department (2024C35096), 2023 Zhejiang College Domestic Visiting Engineer Program (Leader: Lei Ding), and the Major Humanities and Social Science Research Projects in Zhejiang Higher Education Institutions (Grant Number 2021GH047).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ningbo Digital and Cultural Tourism Research Base, Ningbo Polytechnic, Ningbo, 315800, China

    Lei Ding, Qiong Zhang & Yidi Hua

  2. College of Science, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832000, China

    Lihong Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, **amen, 361021, China

    Xuejuan Fang

  4. School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, No.1 Daxue Road, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Beidi Diao

  5. Wuhan Textile University, No.1 Textile Road, Wuhan, 430073, China

    Huihui **a

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  1. Lei Ding
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Contributions

Conceptualization and writing—original draft: Lei Ding, Lihong Wang, and Xuejuan Fang. Data collection, formal analysis, and investigation: Huihui **a, Beidi Diao, and Yidi Hua. Writing—review and editing: Qiong Zhang and Xuejuan Fang. Resources and supervision: Xuejuan Fang. Lei Ding and Lihong Wang contributed equally to this work. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Xuejuan Fang.

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Ding, L., Wang, L., Fang, X. et al. Exploring the spatial effects and influencing mechanism of ozone concentration in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations of China. Environ Monit Assess 196, 603 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12762-4

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