The Evolution of Air Pollution Monitoring and Modelling in Zhejiang Province

In the last 40 years rapid industrialization, urbanization and the subsequent rising living standards in China have contributed to the current high pollution levels. The government had been reluctant to address the pollution issue due to concerns about how increasing industry emission controls might affect China's global competitiveness but with an increasing number of complaints from the expanding middle class coupled with studies that have attributed 1-2 million deaths per year to air pollution the government has now begun to address some of the issues. Tighter control on industry emissions have been implemented while daily government air pollution measurements are now publicly available. In 2018 the government also announced that they will also start to investigate the health risk effects of Pollution. This contribution examines the evolution of air pollution monitoring and modelling relating to Zhejiang Province, a highly urbanized province within the Yangtze River Delta - the largest metropolitan region in China. There is an enormous amount of air pollution research dedicated to the region - particularly the source, monitoring and health effects of air pollution within Hangzhou, the administrative capitol of Zhejiang.