Application of a short term air quality action plan in Madrid (Spain) under a high-pollution episode - Part I: Diagnostic and analysis from observations

Highlights: • Traffic-related NO₂ short-term action plan application in Madrid assessed • Inversion base height as a good index to trigger the NO₂ protocol • Difficulty to assess the effect of the measures based only on observations • NO₂ levels contained downtown Madrid, negligible effect in the city outskirts. • Drastic measures needed under unfavourable meteorological conditions Exceedances of NO₂ hourly limit value (200 μg·m⁻³) imply the need to implement short term action plans to avoid adverse effects on human health in urban areas. The Madrid City Council applied the stage 3 of the NO₂ protocol during a high-pollution episode under stable meteorological conditions on December 2016 for the first time. This included road traffic access restrictions to the city centre (50% of conventional private vehicles based on plate numbers). In this contribution we analyse different meteorological and air quality observations, including non-standard parameters (such as number of ultrafine particles and remote sensing techniques MAXDOAS) for a better understanding of the effectivity of short-term emission abatement measures under real conditions and to identify options to improve the NO₂ protocol in the future. According to our results, the inversion base height computed from vertical temperature soundings is a meaningful index to anticipate very unfavourable conditions and trigger the actions included in the protocol. The analysis of the concentration levels of the main pollutants from the Madrid air quality monitoring network indicate that only stage 3 of the protocol had a significant effect on NO₂ maximum concentrations. The restrictions applied may have prevented NO₂ concentrations to further increase in the city centre (up to 15%) although pollution levels in the city outskirts, outside the area directly affected by the traffic restrictions, remained unchanged or may have been slightly increased. Nonetheless, further studies are needed to estimate more precisely the effect of the measures taken and to assess potential trade-offs. Our results suggest that emissions play an important role also under very strong stability conditions although drastic measures are needed to achieve a significant impact. This highlights the importance of an appropriate timing for short-term actions and the need of permanent abatement measures related to air quality plans and policies.