An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method
Air quality management policies often exhibit spatial inconsistencies in effectiveness due to the diverse spatial scales of air pollution variability, which result from source characteristics as well as geographical and meteorological factors. To address this, the present study proposes a scalable s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada2b2 |
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| author | Jihoon Seo Ahreum Lee Doo-Sun R Park Daeok Youn Kyung Hwan Kim Chang-Eui Park Jin Young Kim |
| author_facet | Jihoon Seo Ahreum Lee Doo-Sun R Park Daeok Youn Kyung Hwan Kim Chang-Eui Park Jin Young Kim |
| author_sort | Jihoon Seo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Air quality management policies often exhibit spatial inconsistencies in effectiveness due to the diverse spatial scales of air pollution variability, which result from source characteristics as well as geographical and meteorological factors. To address this, the present study proposes a scalable spatial decomposition method to separate spatiotemporal air pollution data into background (nationwide), intercity-scale (tens of kilometers), and neighborhood-scale (several kilometers) components. This decomposition was achieved by introducing spatially varying effective ranges for intercity-scale variability at each station, based on the correlation coefficient distance of the background-removed component. Applying this approach to hourly fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ) concentrations from 535 monitoring stations across South Korea for 2021–2022, we evaluated the effectiveness of PM _2.5 management policies. During the polluted cold season (December to March), the intercity-scale component contributed an average of approximately 18% of the total PM _2.5 concentration in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) and Central Area (CA), which are densely populated and industrialized regions. In contrast, this component helped reduce PM _2.5 levels in southeastern coastal areas, where high winds facilitate dispersion. The neighborhood-scale component contributed positively to PM _2.5 levels near industrial complexes and ports but negatively in residential and commercial areas. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of central government-led intercity-scale regulations on total emissions allowances in the SMA and CA and highlight the need for additional local management targeting individual point sources near industrial complexes and ports. This study provides intuitive spatial decomposition tools for understanding PM _2.5 pollution across spatial scales and offers policymakers a foundation for developing multi-scale mitigation strategies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-65dc7aad5bcf4d54ac9b8adfd4921e18 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-65dc7aad5bcf4d54ac9b8adfd4921e182025-01-07T13:38:34ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262025-01-0120101406910.1088/1748-9326/ada2b2An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition methodJihoon Seo0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2878-4551Ahreum Lee1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3268-1627Doo-Sun R Park2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4871-1341Daeok Youn3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0770-9330Kyung Hwan Kim4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1379-800XChang-Eui Park5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8792-6778Jin Young Kim6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5896-9031Climate and Environmental Research Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul, Republic of KoreaClimate and Environmental Research Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Environmental Planning, Seoul National University , Seoul, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Earth Science Education, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Republic of Korea; Weather Extremes Education and Research Team, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, and Center for Atmospheric Remote Sensing, Kyungpook National University , Daegu, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Earth Science Education, Chungbuk National University , Cheongju, Republic of KoreaClimate and Environmental Research Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul, Republic of KoreaClimate and Environmental Research Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul, Republic of KoreaClimate and Environmental Research Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul, Republic of KoreaAir quality management policies often exhibit spatial inconsistencies in effectiveness due to the diverse spatial scales of air pollution variability, which result from source characteristics as well as geographical and meteorological factors. To address this, the present study proposes a scalable spatial decomposition method to separate spatiotemporal air pollution data into background (nationwide), intercity-scale (tens of kilometers), and neighborhood-scale (several kilometers) components. This decomposition was achieved by introducing spatially varying effective ranges for intercity-scale variability at each station, based on the correlation coefficient distance of the background-removed component. Applying this approach to hourly fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ) concentrations from 535 monitoring stations across South Korea for 2021–2022, we evaluated the effectiveness of PM _2.5 management policies. During the polluted cold season (December to March), the intercity-scale component contributed an average of approximately 18% of the total PM _2.5 concentration in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) and Central Area (CA), which are densely populated and industrialized regions. In contrast, this component helped reduce PM _2.5 levels in southeastern coastal areas, where high winds facilitate dispersion. The neighborhood-scale component contributed positively to PM _2.5 levels near industrial complexes and ports but negatively in residential and commercial areas. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of central government-led intercity-scale regulations on total emissions allowances in the SMA and CA and highlight the need for additional local management targeting individual point sources near industrial complexes and ports. This study provides intuitive spatial decomposition tools for understanding PM _2.5 pollution across spatial scales and offers policymakers a foundation for developing multi-scale mitigation strategies.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada2b2PM2.5spatial decompositionintercity-scaleneighborhood-scalepolicy effectiveness |
| spellingShingle | Jihoon Seo Ahreum Lee Doo-Sun R Park Daeok Youn Kyung Hwan Kim Chang-Eui Park Jin Young Kim An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method Environmental Research Letters PM2.5 spatial decomposition intercity-scale neighborhood-scale policy effectiveness |
| title | An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method |
| title_full | An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method |
| title_fullStr | An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method |
| title_full_unstemmed | An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method |
| title_short | An evaluation approach to PM2.5 policy effectiveness over South Korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method |
| title_sort | evaluation approach to pm2 5 policy effectiveness over south korea based on a newly proposed scalable spatial decomposition method |
| topic | PM2.5 spatial decomposition intercity-scale neighborhood-scale policy effectiveness |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada2b2 |
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