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Browsing IPS - ESTS – DSI - Artigos científicos by Subject "Air quality"
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- Citizens’ perception on air quality in Portugal: how concern motivates awarenessPublication . Canha, Nuno; Justino, Ana Rita; Gamelas ou Carla A. Gamelas, Carla; Almeida, Susana MartaThis study aimed to understand the knowledge of Portuguese citizens about air quality and the extent to which the concerns about specific environmental problems can motivate their acquaintance of information. Moreover, this study also allowed to understand which information about air quality needs further dissemination to provide the citizens with all the available tools and the correct knowledge. For this, a national online survey about air quality perception was conducted, where 1131 answers were obtained and two different populations were compared: the general population and a sub-population from an urban-industrial area of Lisbon metropolitan area that had experienced frequent air pollution events in the past. Air pollution was considered the environmental topic of higher concern among this sub-population (61.4%), while in the general population it ranked thirdly (27.4%). Generally, the sub-population showed higher knowledge about air quality than the general population, with 61% being able to identify at least one air pollutant. The perception of the local air quality was also very different between populations, with 61% of the sub-population considering it poor or very poor, while only 14% of the general population had the same perception, which highlights the different levels of concern between populations. A weak knowledge about air pollutants (50% of the general population could not identify any air pollutant) and an erroneous perception of the contribution of the different pollution sources to air quality levels were found. More than 50% of the respondents of both populations were considered to not have enough information regarding the air quality in their area of residence, with the national air quality database being unknown to almost everyone. Overall, strong efforts should be made to increase the awareness about the importance of air quality, which may promote a higher acceptance of the implementation of future actions to improve air quality.
- The impact of COVID-19 confinement measures on the air quality in an urban-industrial area of PortugalPublication . Gamelas ou Carla A. Gamelas, Carla; Abecasis, Leonor; Canha, Nuno; Almeida, Susana MartaThis study evaluated the temporal variability of the concentrations of pollutants (namely, NO2, O3, PM2.5, PM10 and SO2) in an urban-industrial area of mainland Portugal during two decades (from 2001 to 2020), to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the levels of these atmospheric pollutants. Mean levels of pollutants in 2020 were compared with those measured in the six previous years (2014–2019). A significant improvement in air quality, namely regarding PM10 and NO2, was found and it can be attributable to the restrictions of anthropogenic activities (such as traffic) promoted during the March–May 2020 national lockdown that occurred due to the pandemic. Significant and expressive reductions of 44.0% and 40.3% were found in April 2020 for NO2 and PM10, respectively, showing the impact of local traffic in the study area. A similar trend of reduction for these pollutants was also found in the following months. However, ozone levels did not show the same trend, with significant increases in several months after the lockdown period, highlighting other contributions to this pollutant. This unique period can be considered as a living lab, where the implementation of strict measures due to COVID-19 confinement promoted the reduction of anthropogenic activities and allowed us to understand more comprehensively their impact on local air quality.