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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1540671
This article is part of the Research Topic A Strategic Nexus for Enhancing System Resilience: Advancing Energy Efficiency, Reducing Carbon Emissions, Managing Water Resources, and Controlling Air Pollution in the Industrial Sector View all 3 articles
Spatiotemporal heterogeneities and drivers of air pollution in Chinese megacity: a case study of Chengdu
Provisionally accepted- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
The rapid urbanization and industrialization, accompanied by high-intensive population, energy consumption and transportation activities, have made air pollution an intractable environmental issue in China, especially in most megacities. This study identified the primary air pollutant (PAP) of a Chinese megacity -Chengdu, and analyzed the spatiotemporal changes of PAP concentrations. Furthermore, the LMDI and GWR models were employed to probe the spatiotemporal drivers of air pollution in Chengdu. The pollutants of PM10, PM2.5, O3, and NO2 were identified as the PAPs of Chengdu. During the period of 2015~2021, the concentrations of the four PAPs showed decreasing trends from 90.5 μg/m 3 , 56.7 μg/m 3 , 90.0 μg/m 3 , and 34.0 μg/m 3 to 54.2 μg/m 3 , 33.7 μg/m 3 , 87.0 μg/m 3 , and 29.1 μg/m 3 , respectively. In 2021, the spatial distributions of the PAP concentrations were characterized by being higher in the central areas. The temporal changes in the PAP concentrations were conjointly influenced by population, per capita GDP, urban built-up area per unit GDP, greenery coverage rate, and pollution load intensity of greenery, with positive effects of population, per capita GDP, and greenery coverage rate and negative effects of urban built-up area per unit GDP and pollution load intensity of greenery. In spatial, the geographical factors (including temperature, precipitation, wind speed, cultivated area and vegetation coverage rate) and socio-economic factors both affected the PAP concentrations. However, there were spatial heterogeneities in the driving forces between different districts of Chengdu, due to the disparities in both the socio-economic and geographical contexts in different areas. This study also highlights possible policy implications for alleviating urban air pollution, and provides scientific insights for building the clean and livable urban environments for cities.
Keywords: Air Pollution, Megacity, Spatiotemporal heterogeneity, socio-economic factors, Geographical factors
Received: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 04 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xiong, Qiu, Zhao, Du and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Rui Zhao, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
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