Spatiotemporal Patterns and Regional Transport of Ground-Level Ozone in Major Urban Agglomerations in China

Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution has become a serious environmental issue in major urban agglomerations in China. To investigate the spatiotemporal patterns and regional transports of O3 in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH-UA), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD-UA), the Triangle of Central China (TC-UA), Chengdu–Chongqing (CY-UA), and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration (PRD-UA), multiple transdisciplinary methods were employed to analyze the O3-concentration data that were collected from national air quality monitoring networks operated by the China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC). It was found that although ozone concentrations have decreased in recent years, ozone pollution is still a serious issue in China. O3 exhibited different spatiotemporal patterns in the five urban agglomerations. In terms of monthly variations, O3 had a unimodal structure in BTH-UA but a bimodal structure in the other urban agglomerations. The maximum O3 concentration was in autumn in PRD-UA, but in summer in the other urban agglomerations. In spatial distribution, the main distribution of O3 concentration was aligned in northeast–southwest direction for BTH-UA and CY-UA, but in northwest–southeast direction for YRD-UA, TC-UA, and PRD-UA. O3 concentrations exhibited positive spatial autocorrelations in BTH-UA, YRD-UA, and TC-UA, but negative spatial autocorrelations in CY-UA and PRD-UA. Variations in O3 concentration were more affected by weather fluctuations in coastal cities while the variations were more affected by seasonal changes in inland cities. O3 transport in the center cities of the five urban agglomerations was examined by backward trajectory and potential source analyses. Local areas mainly contributed to the O3 concentrations in the five cities, but regional transport also played a significant role. Our findings suggest joint efforts across cities and regions will be necessary to reduce O3 pollution in major urban agglomerations in China.