Author: Danlu Zhang

Zhang et al.: Wildland Fires Worsened Population Exposure to PM2.5 Pollution in the Contiguous United States

Danlu Zhang, Wenhao Wang, Yuzhi Xi, Jianzhao Bi, Yun Hang, Qingyang Zhu, Qiang Pu, Howard Chang, and Yang Liu (2023). Wildland Fires Worsened Population Exposure to PM2.5 Pollution in the Contiguous United States. Environmental Science & Technology Article ASAP

Science Direct: link

As wildland fires become more frequent and intense, fire smoke has significantly worsened the ambient air quality, posing greater health risks. To better understand the impact of wildfire smoke on air quality, we developed a modeling system to estimate daily PM2.5 concentrations attributed to both fire smoke and non-smoke sources across the contiguous U.S. We found that wildfire smoke has the most significant impact on air quality in the West Coast, followed by the Southeastern U.S. Between 2007 and 2018, fire smoke contributed over 25% of daily PM2.5 concentrations at ∼40% of all regulatory air monitors in the EPA’s air quality system (AQS) for more than one month per year. People residing outside the vicinity of an EPA AQS monitor (defined by a 5 km radius) were subject to 36% more smoke impact days compared with those residing nearby. Lowering the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for annual mean PM2.5 concentrations to between 9 and 10 μg/m3 would result in approximately 35–49% of the AQS monitors falling in nonattainment areas, taking into account the impact of fire smoke. If fire smoke contribution is excluded, this percentage would be reduced by 6 and 9%, demonstrating the significant negative impact of wildland fires on air quality.

Zhang et al.: A machine learning model to estimate ambient PM2.5 concentrations in industrialized highveld region of South Africa

Danlu Zhang, Linlin Du, Wenhao Wang, Qingyang Zhu, Jianzhao Bi, Noah Scovronick, Mogesh Naidoo, Rebecca M. Garland, Yang Liu. (2021). A machine learning model to estimate ambient PM2.5 concentrations in industrialized highveld region of South Africa. Remote Sensing of Environment, 266, 112713.

Elsevier: Link

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to a substantial disease burden globally, yet little has been done to estimate the population health risks of PM2.5 in South Africa due to the lack of high-resolution PM2.5 exposure estimates. We developed a random forest model to estimate daily PM2.5 concentrations at 1 km2 resolution in and around industrialized Gauteng Province, South Africa, by combining satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD), meteorology, land use, and socioeconomic data. We then compared PM2.5 concentrations in the study domain before and after the implementation of the new national air quality standards. Model-estimated PM2.5 levels successfully captured the temporal pattern recorded by ground observations. Spatially, the highest annual PM2.5 concentration appeared in central and northern Gauteng, including northern Johannesburg and the city of Tshwane. Since the 2016 changes in national PM2.5 standards, PM2.5 concentrations have decreased in most of our study region, although levels in Johannesburg and its surrounding areas have remained relatively constant.