Fresh air is a scarce resource, especially in urbanized area with much vehicular traffic and manufacturing production. An average adult breathes in and out over 11,000 litres of air a day. Air pollution has acute and chronic effects on human health and statistics showed direct link between poor air quality and asthma flare-ups even in healthy people.
Pollutants such as sulphur and nitrogen compounds produced by human activities including such as power plant, factory and motor vehicles also cause acid rain, which affects surface water quality, aquatic animals, soil and vegetation in major ways. In the first project that follows, PolyU joined hands with mainland authorities in a nationwide study on the formation, transport and control of acid rain, which will permanently benefit China’s macro-environment.
A few years ago, the air pollution index at Tung Chung hit a record high of 201, believed to be caused by the wind direction that brings pollutants from Pearl River Delta (PRD) region to the Hong Kong satellite city. Owing to our geographical proximity, local air quality is closely related to that of the PRD. In the second project, PolyU experts collaborate with NASA in the U.S. to monitor and analyze the level of aerosols in PRD with the aid of cutting-edge technology and satellite imaging.
Other areas of research on air quality are also covered by PolyU scholars. They include:
| Air and climate change in PRD region: | understanding hydrocarbons emission, pollution sources, meteorology, formation, fate and transport of air pollutants |
| Microenvironment: | Studies on ozone pollution, photochemical air pollution, cooking fume emission, roadside air chemical composition, vehicular emission in urban and local districts while assessing their impacts on human health and quality of life |
| Indoor environment: | analysing the health implications of indoor air quality (IAQ); developing technologies to assess and improve IAQ |
| Environmental policy: | researching international government agreements on air pollution control to formulate an integrated air pollution control strategy |
| Some of the featured projects: | A nationwide acid rain research project in China |
| NASA project on Pearl River Delta (PRD) aerosol problem |