Air quality and COVID-19 - Update 4 May 2020
The measures taken to combat the corona virus in Austria lead to significant changes in pollutant emissions. Evaluations of the Umweltbundesamt (Environment Agency Austria) show a decline in air pollutant concentrations at air quality monitoring stations close to traffic and in urban areas.
The Environment Agency Austria and the provincial governments monitor Austria’s air quality through a dense network of monitoring stations across Austria. Data is updated every half hour. An analysis of concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, undertaken since 16 March 2020 at selected monitoring stations, shows a decrease in concentrations.
Other factors than the lockdown measures, such as weather conditions, can also have an effect on the pollutant concentrations.
To assess how the COVID-19 pandemic affects concentrations of air pollution in Europe, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has developed a viewer that tracks the weekly average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5). The viewer shows weekly averages for each city.
