2018YUSREP-PAPCA26344.pdf

Subtitle: Mitigation of severe urban haze pollution by a precision air pollution control approach

        A novel method to cut back on heavy haze pollution for citities:Precision air pollution control approach (PAPCA) . This method comes from Prof. Shaocai Yu of Zhejiang University in China, and  California Institute of Technology in the US. In an article published in Nature published journal 《Scientific Reports》 （https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26344-1）, Prof. Yu and his team suggest a novel approach to help curb the severe air pollution and heavy haze that is experienced in many Chinese cities, as well as others around the world.

          Severe and persistent haze pollution involving fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentrations reaching unprecedentedly high levels across many cities in China poses a serious threat to human health. Although mandatory temporary cessation of most urban and surrounding emission sources is an effective, but costly, short-term measure to abate air pollution, development of long-term crisis response measures remains a challenge, especially for curbing severe urban haze events on a regular basis. Here we introduce and evaluate a novel precision air pollution control approach (PAPCA) to mitigate severe urban haze events. The approach involves combining predictions of high PM_2.5 concentrations, with a hybrid trajectory-receptor model and a comprehensive 3-D atmospheric model, to pinpoint the origins of emissions leading to such events and to optimize emission controls.  Results of the PAPCA application to five severe haze episodes in major urban areas in China suggest that this strategy has the potential to significantly mitigate severe urban haze by decreasing PM_2.5 peak concentrations by more than 60% from above 300 mg m^-3 to below 100 mg m^-3, while requiring ~30% to 70% less emission controls as compared to complete emission reductions. The PAPCA strategy has the potential to tackle effectively severe urban haze pollution events with economic efficiency.