A hybrid model for enhanced forecasting of PM spatiotemporal concentrations with high resolution and accuracy.

Forecasting concentrations of PM is important due to its known impacts on public health and environment. However, PM concentrations can vary significantly over short distances and time, which can be influenced by local emissions and short-term weather patterns. This spatiotemporal variability makes accurate PM forecasting an inherently complex and challenging task.

High-time resolution PM source apportionment assisted by spectrum-based characteristics analysis.

Characteristics extraction and anomaly analysis based on frequency spectrum can provide crucial support for source apportionment of PM pollution. In this study, an effective source apportionment framework combining the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)- and Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT)-based spectral analyses and Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor model is developed for spectrum characteristics extraction and source contribution assessment. The developed framework is applied to Beijing during the winter heating period with 1-h time resolution.

Towards the definition of WEEE recycling targets in Ecuador. A case of study for mobile phones.

The rise of consumption patterns of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and the generation of waste EEE (WEEE) has been strongly increasing globally. Recycling rates (RRs) are one of the main indicators for monitoring the progress towards a circular economy and establishing recovery and treatment schemes. For this reason, this study discusses the setting of recycling targets for WEEE in Ecuador, using mobile phones as a case study.

Ecological Study on Global Health Effects due to Source-Specific Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure.

Ambient air pollution of fine particulate matter with diameters less than 2.5 μm (PM) is associated with millions of premature deaths per year, recognized as a leading global health concern. The dose-response relation between ambient PM exposure and mortality risk is the most fundamental information for assessments of the health effects of PM.

Dynamic harmonization of source-oriented and receptor models for source apportionment.

Millions of premature mortalities are caused by the air pollution of fine particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5 μm (PM) globally per year. To effectively control the dominant emission sources and abate air pollution, source apportionment of PM is normally conducted to quantify the contributions of various sources, but the results of different methods might be inconsistent.

Health benefit/burden, PM removal effectiveness, and power consumption based comparison of common residential air-cleaning technologies in the United States.

This modeling study compared the common air cleaners in U.S. residences based on averted disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) related to indoor PM concentration reduction and the DALYs resulted from carbon-di-oxide (CO ) emissions from power consumption.

Developing a High-Resolution Emission Inventory of China's Aviation Sector Using Real-World Flight Trajectory Data.

Economic growth and globalization have led to a surge in civil aviation transportation demand. Among the major economies in the world, China has experienced a 12-fold increase in terms of total passenger aviation traffic volume since 2000 and is expected to be the largest aviation market soon. To better understand the environmental impacts of China's aviation sector, this study developed a real-world flight trajectory-based emission inventory, which enabled the fine-grained characterization of four-dimensional (time, longitude, latitude, and altitude) emissions of various flight stages.

Global Sensitivity Analysis of Background Life Cycle Inventories.

In recent years many Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies have been conducted to quantify the environmental performance of products and services. Some of these studies propagated numerical uncertainties in underlying data to LCA results, and several applied Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) to some parts of the LCA model to determine its main uncertainty drivers. However, only a few studies have tackled the GSA of complete LCA models due to the high computational cost of such analysis and the lack of appropriate methods for very high-dimensional models.

Air path of antimicrobial resistance related genes from layer farms: Emission inventory, atmospheric transport, and human exposure.

Animal husbandry is a significant contributor to increased environmental antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but little is known regarding the dissemination of AMR from animal farms via airborne transmission. Here, we connected the air path of AMR related genes tailored to layer poultry farms from source of escape to end of sedimentation. The emission inventories of 8 AMR related genes from all 163-layer poultry farms around Beijing city were quantified.

Mitigation effects of alternative aviation fuels on non-volatile particulate matter emissions from aircraft gas turbine engines: A review.

Global air transportation has grown rapidly in the past decade until the recent coronavirus pandemic. Previous research has demonstrated that particulate matter (PM) emissions from aircraft gas turbine engines can impair human health and environment, and may play a significant role in global climate change via direct absorption of solar radiation and indirect effect by their interaction with clouds. Using alternative aviation fuels (AAFs) from different sources have become a promising means to reduce aviation PM emissions and ensure energy sustainability.

Contributions of Traffic and Industrial Emission Reductions to the Air Quality Improvement after the Lockdown of Wuhan and Neighboring Cities Due to COVID-19.

Wuhan was locked down from 23 January to 8 April 2020 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Both public and private transportation in Wuhan and its neighboring cities in Hubei Province were suspended or restricted, and the manufacturing industry was partially shut down. This study collected and investigated ground monitoring data to prove that the lockdowns of the cities had significant influences on the air quality in Wuhan.

PM drives bacterial functions for carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles in the atmosphere.

Airborne bacteria may absorb the substance from the atmospheric particles and play a role in biogeochemical cycling. However, these studies focused on a few culturable bacteria and the samples were usually collected from one site. The metabolic potential of a majority of airborne bacteria on a regional scale and their driving factors remain unknown.

A massive rock and ice avalanche caused the 2021 disaster at Chamoli, Indian Himalaya.

On 7 February 2021, a catastrophic mass flow descended the Ronti Gad, Rishiganga, and Dhauliganga valleys in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, India, causing widespread devastation and severely damaging two hydropower projects. More than 200 people were killed or are missing. Our analysis of satellite imagery, seismic records, numerical model results, and eyewitness videos reveals that ~27 × 10 cubic meters of rock and glacier ice collapsed from the steep north face of Ronti Peak.

Seasonal discrepancies in peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and its correlation with ozone and PM: Effects of regional transport from circumjacent industrial cities.

Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) is the most important reservoir of nitrogen oxides, with effects on atmospheric oxidation capacity and regional nitrogen distribution. The first yearlong observational study of PAN was conducted from September 2018 to August 2019 at a suburban site and an urban site in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, central China. Compared with studies over the past two decades, summer PAN pollution at the suburban site and winter PAN pollution at both sites were more significant, with annual average concentrations of 1.

Not all SuDS are created equal: Impact of different approaches on combined sewer overflows.

Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) help in stormwater management by reducing runoff volume, increasing runoff concentration time and thereby improving the drainage system capacity. This study investigated the potential and cost-effectiveness of SuDS in reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs). We simulated the performance of four SuDS techniques (bioretention cell, permeable pavement, rain barrel and green roof) at incremental levels of spatial coverage for a small urban catchment with a combined sewer system.

The environmental performance of enhanced metal recovery from dry municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash.

This study assesses the environmental performance of the municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration bottom ash (IBA) treatment plant in Hinwil, Switzerland, a large-scale industrial plant, which also serves as a full-scale laboratory for new technologies and aims at an optimal recovery of metals in terms of quantity and quality. Based on new mass-flow data, we perform a life cycle assessment that includes the recovery of iron, stainless steel, aluminium, copper, lead, silver and gold. Fraction-specific modelling allows for investigating the effect of the metal fraction quality on the subsequent secondary metal production as well as examining further metal recycling potentials in the residual IBA.

Influence of Aviation Emission on the Particle Number Concentration near Zurich Airport.

In addition to the much-publicized environmental impact of CO emission by air traffic, aviation particulate emission also deserves attention. The abundant ultrafine particles in the aviation exhaust with diameters less than 100 nm may penetrate deep into the human respiratory system and cause adverse health effects. Here, we quantified the detailed aviation particle number emission from Zurich Airport and evaluated its influences on the annual mean particle number concentrations in the surrounding communities.

Infection Risk Assessment of COVID-19 through Aerosol Transmission: a Case Study of South China Seafood Market.

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading throughout the world. Aerosol is a potential transmission route. We conducted the quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) to evaluate the aerosol transmission risk by using the South China Seafood Market as an example.

The hitchhiker's guide to core samples: Key issues and lessons learned.

Core samples may be used as valuable geochronometers for storing historical pollution footprints of organic pollutants. A number of studies have used core samples to evaluate temporal depositions, loading inventories, and effectiveness of environmental mitigation measures. However, in order to get a reliable estimation, certain prerequisites must be satisfied to rule out various confounding factors such as biomixing and melting.

Potential Consequences of Regional Species Loss for Global Species Richness: A Quantitative Approach for Estimating Global Extinction Probabilities.

Because the biosphere is highly heterogeneous, species diversity impacts are typically assessed at local or regional scales. Because regional species richness impact metrics refer to different species compositions, they cannot be easily compared or aggregated to global impacts. Translating regional species richness impacts into global impacts allows for comparisons between impacts and facilitates the estimation of global species extinctions.

A number-based inventory of size-resolved black carbon particle emissions by global civil aviation.

With the rapidly growing global air traffic, the impacts of the black carbon (BC) in the aviation exhaust on climate, environment and public health are likely rising. The particle number and size distribution are crucial metrics for toxicological analysis and aerosol-cloud interactions. Here, a size-resolved BC particle number emission inventory was developed for the global civil aviation.

Spatially explicit LCA analysis of biodiversity losses due to different bioenergy policies in the European Union.

In this study, the potential global loss of species directly associated with land use in the EU and due to trade with other regions is computed over time, in order to reveal differences in impacts between the considered alternatives of plausible bioenergy policies development in the EU. The spatially explicit study combines a life cycle analysis (LCA) for biodiversity impact assessment with a global high resolution economic land use model. Both impacts of domestic land use and impacts through imports were included for estimating the biodiversity footprint of the member states of the (EU28).

Biodiversity Recovery and Transformation Impacts for Wetland Biodiversity.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods for land use take both occupation and transformation impacts into account. However, for wetlands and impacts from water consumption, it is so far not possible to account for transformation impacts. It is our goal to close this research gap, by determining wetland recovery times and developing characterization factors for transformation.

Assessment of Particle Pollution from Jetliners: from Smoke Visibility to Nanoparticle Counting.

Aviation is a substantial and a fast growing emissions source. Besides greenhouse gases, aircraft engines emit black carbon (BC), a climate forcer and air pollutant. Aviation BC emissions have been regulated and estimated through exhaust smoke visibility (smoke number).

Effects of Fuel Aromatic Content on Nonvolatile Particulate Emissions of an In-Production Aircraft Gas Turbine.

Aircraft engines emit particulate matter (PM) that affects the air quality in the vicinity of airports and contributes to climate change. Nonvolatile PM (nvPM) emissions from aircraft turbine engines depend on fuel aromatic content, which varies globally by several percent. It is uncertain how this variability will affect future nvPM emission regulations and emission inventories.