A study led by master’s student Xuelin Tian examining emission levels shows a sharp drop in vehicle pollutants as of March 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered cities around the world did not just affect the way we work, study and socialize. It also affected our mobility. With millions of workers no longer commuting, vehicle traffic across Canada has plummeted. This has had a significant impact on the quality of air in major Canadian cities, according to a new study by Concordia researchers.
A paper published in the journal Science of the Total Environment looked at downtown air quality monitoring station data from Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and St. John’s. It compared the cities’ concentration levels of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide measured between February and August 2020 to the figures recorded over the same period in 2018 and 2019. They also used satellite imagery and urban transportation fuel consumption figures to investigate emissions traffic congestion data provided by tracking technology embedded in phones and cars worldwide.
Not surprisingly, the researchers found that emission levels dropped dramatically over the course of the pandemic. The most noticeable drop-off occurred in week 12 of 2020 — the one beginning Sunday, March 15, when national lockdown measures were implemented.
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