A research on PM2.5 transmission mode based on motif analysis

PM2.5 has had a huge impact on human health and global climate. With accurate modeling ofthe transmission mode of PM2.5, the government can formulate and implement more preciseenvironmental policies to control PM2.5 emissions, thereby generating co-benefits in multiple fields.We select 93 cities including the three provinces of Northeast China, Shandong Province, HenanProvince, Shanxi Province and Jing-Jin-Ji region as examples. Higher-order organization of complexnetworks are applied to our study. The data we use contains meteorological conditions of wind speedand wind direction, social factor of region’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), as well as geographicdistance and PM2.5 concentrations. To our knowledge,it is the first work to include GDP in the analysisof PM2.5 transmission. By the motif analysis method, the major potential PM2.5 pollution victims areidentified in each cluster. In the region including Shandong, Henan and Shanxi Province, Xingyang isvulnerable to pollution in PM2.5 transport. In the Jing-Jin-Ji region, Beijing and Tianjin are vulnerableto pollution. In addition, we also found that Shijiazhuang, Handan and Baoding, as the gathering placeof large-scale industries, are the main contributors of pollution transmission, which provides us witha strong guidance to control the pollution.