Discovery of Artificial Photolysis that Influences Air Pollution in Urban Versus Rural Areas in Changing Climate

The study aims to identify what influences the increase in air pollution in an urban area, mitigation methods, and possible sustainable development in a changing global climate. The critical environmental hazards are artificial light at night (ALAN) and air pollution with ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5). People use nighttime outdoor environments for their needs, and the nocturnally migrating birds are attracted to urban ALAN during seasonal migration, which could increase the birds' exposure to PM2.5. A comparative study examines PM2.5 concentrations and the spatial correlation between ALAN and PM2.5 within urban versus rural areas. The essence of the research is to find the ALAN influence on PM2.5 concentration. The author used the nighttime data of the artificial light on the Earth's surface and the PM2.5 concentration level to estimate the extent of air pollution associated with PM2.5 in the ground-level atmosphere. The study uses a light meter, a sky quality meter, and a PM2.5 meter to measure the relationship between air and light pollution simultaneously. The significant contributions of this study's findings revealed that the ALAN influences increased PM2.5 concentration in urban Toronto. The results can assist in determining the required PM2.5 control areas and designing and executing environmental conservation planning. The results are not only beneficial to understanding accurately the regional differences of spatiotemporal PM2.5 emission dynamics and helpful for proposing alleviation policies in air pollution control and providing scientific support for regional sustainable development in changing climate. The integrated hazards of ALAN and air pollution are most significant and likely to increase within the urban and decrease within rural areas. This study was undertaken and built upon the context of the academic, scientific, and technological challenges to identify the PM2.5 concentration in urban and rural areas and the expected outcomes. This is the first comparative study to find that artificial photolysis influences air pollution in an urban nocturnal environment. Therefore, this research finding is original, not repetitive, historical, and ground-breaking research in environmental, climate lighting science, and technology. This research will help researchers, scientists, engineers, consultants, architects, lighting designers, and government agencies seeking to improve outdoor lighting for safety, health, well-being, and quality of life in the built environment.