Air quality improvement and its relation to mobility during COVID-19 lockdown in Marmara Region, Turkey

Bahtiyar Efe

doi:10.1007/s10661-022-09889-7

Air quality improvement and its relation to mobility during COVID-19 lockdown in Marmara Region, Turkey

Bahtiyar Efe^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Samsun University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (hereafter COVID-19) has changed the daily routines of people around the world. When the first case was confirmed on 11 March 2020 in Turkey, the number of cases reached 4500 per day by 10 April in Turkey. Afterwards, the government declared more restrictive lockdown measures for 31 metropolitan cities starting 10 April, and it was implemented for the following weekends, national, and religious holidays. The change in concentrations of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and NO₂ during these measures with respect to the pre-lockdown period, the same period in the previous years and for different levels of measures for the cities in the Marmara Region of Turkey was investigated in this study. The daily mean concentrations of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and NO₂ obtained from 11 stations operated by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Google mobility data are used in this study. Average PM_2.5 and NO₂ concentrations during the lockdown period declined with respect to the pre-lockdown period and the previous year for all stations. Average PM₁₀ concentrations during the lockdown of 8 of 11 stations declined, while the rest of the stations increased with respect to the pre-lockdown period. In 9 of the 11 stations, the average concentration of PM₁₀ decreased compared to the previous four years. In 7 of the 11 stations, the number of days exceeding WHO limit for PM₁₀ was decreased during the lockdown period with respect to the pre-lockdown period. For PM_2.5, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for all the stations. For NO₂, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for 7 of the 8 stations. There is a significant relationship between mobility decrease and NO₂ concentrations in large cities. The correlation coefficients are generally lower in small cities in the study region.

Original language	English
Article number	255
Journal	Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Volume	194
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09889-7
Publication status	Published - Apr 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Funding

The author is grateful to the Marmara Clean Air Center (10 stations) and Greater Istanbul Municipality for providing air pollution data, for Y. Burak Öztaner for encouraging the author to write this paper and help for every stage, Dr. Anthony Lupo and Ozkan Çapraz for providing language help, for Dr. Selahattin Incecik for proof reading the article and referees for their useful comments and suggestions that have helped us improve the earlier version of the manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Greater Istanbul Municipality
Marmara Clean Air Center

Keywords

Air pollution
COVID-19
Marmara Region
Turkey

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1007/s10661-022-09889-7

Cite this

@article{475a3ddb348e472fa7d9a6ab40386aa1,

title = "Air quality improvement and its relation to mobility during COVID-19 lockdown in Marmara Region, Turkey",

abstract = "The outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (hereafter COVID-19) has changed the daily routines of people around the world. When the first case was confirmed on 11 March 2020 in Turkey, the number of cases reached 4500 per day by 10 April in Turkey. Afterwards, the government declared more restrictive lockdown measures for 31 metropolitan cities starting 10 April, and it was implemented for the following weekends, national, and religious holidays. The change in concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 during these measures with respect to the pre-lockdown period, the same period in the previous years and for different levels of measures for the cities in the Marmara Region of Turkey was investigated in this study. The daily mean concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 obtained from 11 stations operated by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Google mobility data are used in this study. Average PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations during the lockdown period declined with respect to the pre-lockdown period and the previous year for all stations. Average PM10 concentrations during the lockdown of 8 of 11 stations declined, while the rest of the stations increased with respect to the pre-lockdown period. In 9 of the 11 stations, the average concentration of PM10 decreased compared to the previous four years. In 7 of the 11 stations, the number of days exceeding WHO limit for PM10 was decreased during the lockdown period with respect to the pre-lockdown period. For PM2.5, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for all the stations. For NO2, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for 7 of the 8 stations. There is a significant relationship between mobility decrease and NO2 concentrations in large cities. The correlation coefficients are generally lower in small cities in the study region.",

keywords = "Air pollution, COVID-19, Marmara Region, Turkey",

author = "Bahtiyar Efe",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.",

year = "2022",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1007/s10661-022-09889-7",

language = "English",

volume = "194",

journal = "Environmental Monitoring and Assessment",

issn = "0167-6369",

publisher = "Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Air quality improvement and its relation to mobility during COVID-19 lockdown in Marmara Region, Turkey

AU - Efe, Bahtiyar

PY - 2022/4

Y1 - 2022/4

N2 - The outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (hereafter COVID-19) has changed the daily routines of people around the world. When the first case was confirmed on 11 March 2020 in Turkey, the number of cases reached 4500 per day by 10 April in Turkey. Afterwards, the government declared more restrictive lockdown measures for 31 metropolitan cities starting 10 April, and it was implemented for the following weekends, national, and religious holidays. The change in concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 during these measures with respect to the pre-lockdown period, the same period in the previous years and for different levels of measures for the cities in the Marmara Region of Turkey was investigated in this study. The daily mean concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 obtained from 11 stations operated by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Google mobility data are used in this study. Average PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations during the lockdown period declined with respect to the pre-lockdown period and the previous year for all stations. Average PM10 concentrations during the lockdown of 8 of 11 stations declined, while the rest of the stations increased with respect to the pre-lockdown period. In 9 of the 11 stations, the average concentration of PM10 decreased compared to the previous four years. In 7 of the 11 stations, the number of days exceeding WHO limit for PM10 was decreased during the lockdown period with respect to the pre-lockdown period. For PM2.5, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for all the stations. For NO2, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for 7 of the 8 stations. There is a significant relationship between mobility decrease and NO2 concentrations in large cities. The correlation coefficients are generally lower in small cities in the study region.

AB - The outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (hereafter COVID-19) has changed the daily routines of people around the world. When the first case was confirmed on 11 March 2020 in Turkey, the number of cases reached 4500 per day by 10 April in Turkey. Afterwards, the government declared more restrictive lockdown measures for 31 metropolitan cities starting 10 April, and it was implemented for the following weekends, national, and religious holidays. The change in concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 during these measures with respect to the pre-lockdown period, the same period in the previous years and for different levels of measures for the cities in the Marmara Region of Turkey was investigated in this study. The daily mean concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 obtained from 11 stations operated by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Google mobility data are used in this study. Average PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations during the lockdown period declined with respect to the pre-lockdown period and the previous year for all stations. Average PM10 concentrations during the lockdown of 8 of 11 stations declined, while the rest of the stations increased with respect to the pre-lockdown period. In 9 of the 11 stations, the average concentration of PM10 decreased compared to the previous four years. In 7 of the 11 stations, the number of days exceeding WHO limit for PM10 was decreased during the lockdown period with respect to the pre-lockdown period. For PM2.5, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for all the stations. For NO2, the number of days exceeding WHO limit was decreased during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period for 7 of the 8 stations. There is a significant relationship between mobility decrease and NO2 concentrations in large cities. The correlation coefficients are generally lower in small cities in the study region.

KW - Air pollution

KW - COVID-19

KW - Marmara Region

KW - Turkey

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85125972213

U2 - 10.1007/s10661-022-09889-7

DO - 10.1007/s10661-022-09889-7

M3 - Article

C2 - 35257238

AN - SCOPUS:85125972213

SN - 0167-6369

VL - 194

JO - Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

JF - Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

IS - 4

M1 - 255

ER -

Air quality improvement and its relation to mobility during COVID-19 lockdown in Marmara Region, Turkey

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this