Defending blue sky in China: Effectiveness of the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan” on air quality improvements from 2013 to 2017

Air pollution control has become one of the top priorities of China's “Ecological Civilization” development. As a quick response to the 2013 PM2.5 episodes, the Chinese Government issued the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan” as the national strategy and roadmap for air quality improvements consisting of phased quantitative targets and concrete measures. Taking this into account, this study explores the spatiotemporal variations of the five conventional pollutants—PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and O3—as well as the Air Quality Index and primary pollutants in 338 Chinese cities from 2013 to 2017 in order to comprehensively understand China's current air pollution situation and evaluate the effectiveness of the Action Plan. The results indicate that: (1) the overall air quality has been significantly improved, with the concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, and SO2 decreasing noticeably, although the still high PM level, the dramatically increasing O3 concentration, and the stagnant amounts of NO2 present further challenges, along with the intensification of regional compound air pollution problems; (2) in contrast to the three key regions under the Action Plan exhibiting significant decreases in PM and SO2, the Fen-Wei Plain (FWP) is suffering from serious compound pollution, suggesting that there is an urgent need for the development of a regional joint prevention and control mechanism in the FWP and similar areas; (3) with the exception of the common pollution hot spots mainly concentrated in the FWP as well as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and its surrounding regions, the distribution of each pollutant exhibited remarkable spatial heterogeneity due to their distinctive emission sources, a finding that strongly indicates the need for regionally differentiated management; and (4) the most frequent primary pollutant at the national level was O3, followed by PM2.5 and PM10. In the Wuhan Metropolitan Area (WHM), Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Area (CZT), and Sichuan-Chongqing Region (CY), PM2.5 pollution is playing the dominant role, while in the FWP, BTH, Yangtze River Delta region (YRD), and Pearl River Delta region (PRD), the synergistic control of PM2.5 and O3 pollutants is urgently needed as soon as possible, which will require that more attention be paid to emission mitigation in the transportation sector, as well as the synergistic control of NOx and VOC emissions. •Overall air quality improved dramatically, but non-attainment is still widesprea