La reducción de emisiones durante la COVID 19 como caso de estudio para la comparación de métodos para la estimación de impactos en calidad del aire

Abstract

Air quality models are useful tools for estimating the effect of emission reductions on pollutant concentrations, especially for hypothetical situations for which there are no observations. However, this lack of observations makes it difficult to evaluate the model response. The reduction of emissions during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 provided a case study for which model responses could be evaluated. The impact on air quality of the emission reductions in 2020 estimated by the CHIMERE chemistry and transport mode (CTM) was compared with estimates using methodologies based on observed concentrations. The ability of the different methods (based on observations and CTM) to predict a “business as usual” scenario (2019) was examined and then the methodologies were used to evaluate the impacts on air quality due to the COVID-19 lockdown.