The impact of COVID-19 confinement measures in the Air Quality in an urban-industrial zone in Portugal

Comunicação oral apresentada em 25th International Clean Air and Environment Conference CASANZ 2021, 17-21 de maio 2021, onlineThis work aims to evaluate the temporal evolution of the concentrations of pollutants PM10, NO2 and O3, from 2001 to 2020, and to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the levels of these atmospheric pollutants, in an urban-industrial zone (Paio Pires-Seixal, Portugal). The results showed that a significant improvement in air quality resulted from the large restriction of anthropogenic activities that occurred due to the pandemic, namely the March-May 2020 lockdown. The mean concentrations of PM10, NO2 and O3 in 2020 were compared with the average concentrations measured from 2014 to 2019. The most expressive reduction in NO2 (-43.9%, p=0.000) was found in April 2020, when a very expressive PM10 reduction was also registered (- 40.0%, p=0.000) and significant reductions of both pollutants were found in the months thereafter.N/