Air Quality in New York city for the past few years and during Covid lock down

Abstract:

Much research has shown when people get exposed to air pollutants, it can cause adverse effects on their health such as respiratory symptoms, heart or lung diseases, and death. Because of this, New York City (NYC) has been putting effort into improving outdoor air quality. For instance, a plan made by NYC in 2008 to improve air-quality called PlaNYC focuses on reducing transportation emission and building emission. The purpose of this research is separated into three parts. First, analyze the seasonal variation for PM_2.5, O₃, NO2, and CO. Second, answer the question: does the air quality improvement plan proposed by NYC work? The data from January 1st, 2017 to June 30th, 2020 are analyzed for all the pollutants except CO, which is from January 1st, 2018 to June 30th, 2020. When analyzing the data, the monthly averaged air quality index (AQI) is calculated and plotted into a graph. A trendline is draw and seasonal variation is observed for each pollutant. Lastly, evaluate the impact of lockdown in NYC due to the Covid-19 pandemic on air quality. The data in March 13th to June 30th from 2017 to 2020 is used for all the pollutants except CO, which is from the same months but from 2018 to 2020. To achieve this purpose, maximum, minimum, average, and relative change will be calculated for data of each month for all the pollutants and compared among the years.