COVID-AIR: Influence of the COVID-19-lockdown on Swiss air quality
At a glance
- Project leader : Dr. Julien Anet
- Co-project leader : Dr. Christoph Hofer
- Deputy of project leader : Stefan Fluck
- Project team : Dr. Jacinta Edebeli, Dr. René Locher, Curdin Spirig
- Project budget : CHF 50'000
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : Internal
- Contact person : Julien Anet
Description
In order to manage the corona pandemic, the number of aircraft
movements was reduced worldwide. Before the Federal Council's
decided to release the first relaxation measures, only 10% of
scheduled flights took off at the end of April at Zurich Airport.
But road traffic also fell sharply in the Zurich region: a
reduction in traffic flow of 50-80% was observed in the entire
Zurich economic area (WRZ).
In the knowledge that road traffic is responsible for a large
proportion (>50%) of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and that
aviation, although locally limited, also emits a high proportion of
fine particulate matter (non-volatile and volatile nanoparticles),
greater positive effects of the COVID lockdown on air quality can
be expected. The Meteorology, Environment and Aviation Research
Unit of the Center for Aviation was able to detect an astonishingly
low particle concentration in calendar week 16 by means of initial
air hygiene measurements carried out immediately adjacent to the
airport. Initial internal and external reports also indicate that
certain pollutant concentrations have decreased significantly. In
addition, on the initiative of some of the project participants
listed above, 10 measuring instruments for respirable particles
(LDSA) were installed in the central WRZ in calendar week 18 in
cooperation with naneos AG, the City of Zurich (UGZ) and AWEL.
There are thus two data streams: On the one hand, automatic
measuring stations of the Ostluft and NABEL networks recorded the
entire COVID episode, while on the other hand the COVID lockdown
triggered specific measuring campaigns. Both data streams will be
used to achieve an initial quantification of the "COVID 19 effect"
(CE). However, this step is difficult: air pollutants, such as
PM10, can be transported over global scales and thus distort local
effects very strongly. In order to analyse the CE in detail,
model-based statistical methods are required, which - if necessary
- also take into account the stochastic part of the temporal and
spatial correlation, which is why the IDP will contribute to this
project as a statistical consultancy.