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.
![Table of average NO2-concentration during March 2018 and 2019 at selected monitoring station in comparison to the lockdown-period in March and April 2020](/fileadmin/_processed_/3/8/csm_en-tabelle-7_721eaca863.png)
![Graphic of average weekly NO2-concentration since 16 March 2020 in comparison to March, April 2018, 2019](/fileadmin/_processed_/9/9/csm_en_no2-wochenmittelwerte_2020-05-04_eff501fbad.png)
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.