Rapidly rising transboundary atmospheric pollution from industrial and urban sources in Southeast Asia and its implications for regional sustainable development

TY - JOUR

T1 - Rapidly rising transboundary atmospheric pollution from industrial and urban sources in Southeast Asia and its implications for regional sustainable development

AU - Chen, Q.

AU - McGowan, S.

AU - Gouramanis, C.

AU - Fong, L.

AU - Balasubramanian, R.

AU - Taylor, D.

N1 - Funding details: FY2017-FRC1-005 Funding details: National Pork Board, NPB Funding details: National University of Singapore, NUS, R-109-000-223-133 Funding details: Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, KPM Funding text 1: Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the . Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Academic Research Fund Tier 1, Ministry of Education, Singapore FY2017-FRC1-005 National University of Singapore start-up grant R-109-000-223-133 yes � 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license Funding text 2: We thank Public Utilities Board, Singapore's National Water Agency, and National Park Board for granting us permission and providing access to the reservoir and catchment. We especially thank Elvagris Segovia for extensive assistance with lab work. We also thank Tay Hui Pin Shermaine, Heng Su Li, Alex Finnegan, and Wayne Bannister for their valuable suggestions and comments on earlier versions of this paper. We are indebted to Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (FY2017-FRC1-005) from the Ministry of Education (MoE), Singapore for financial support, and to the MoE, Singapore for a Ph.D. Research Scholarship to CQ. CG was partially supported by the National University of Singapore start-up grant (R-109-000-223-133). We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve the paper.

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Transboundary atmospheric pollution is a major concern throughout much of Southeast Asia (SEA), although most attention has, to date, focused on episodic haze events associated with biomass burning in the region. Here, we reconstruct long-term variations in transboundary inputs of chromium (Cr), an industrial pollutant, to Singapore over the period 1900-2017 by adopting a novel catchment-reservoir mass balance methodology that combines a national emissions inventory and a paleolimnological approach. Results show periods of low (before the 1950s) and relatively stable (the 1950s-1980s) levels of transboundary Cr deposition in Singapore followed by an unambiguous increase from ca. 1990 onwards, most likely linked to the onset of rapid industrialisation in neighbouring parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. Notably, from ca. 2000 onwards, fluxes of transboundary Cr deposition in Singapore further increased by 3% per year, almost doubling from 6 ± 3 tonne Cr yr-1 in 2000 to around 11 ± 3 tonne Cr yr-1 in 2017. This post-2000 rapid increase may reflect the effects of globalisation, pro-export driven economic growth policies and increasing capital inflows to the whole region, including from Singapore, all of which combined to drive industrialisation throughout much of SEA. The current trend of increasing transboundary pollution from anthropogenic activity highlights an urgent need for effective collaboration among countries in SEA in order to improve well-being and help guarantee sustainable development throughout the region.

AB - Transboundary atmospheric pollution is a major concern throughout much of Southeast Asia (SEA), although most attention has, to date, focused on episodic haze events associated with biomass burning in the region. Here, we reconstruct long-term variations in transboundary inputs of chromium (Cr), an industrial pollutant, to Singapore over the period 1900-2017 by adopting a novel catchment-reservoir mass balance methodology that combines a national emissions inventory and a paleolimnological approach. Results show periods of low (before the 1950s) and relatively stable (the 1950s-1980s) levels of transboundary Cr deposition in Singapore followed by an unambiguous increase from ca. 1990 onwards, most likely linked to the onset of rapid industrialisation in neighbouring parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. Notably, from ca. 2000 onwards, fluxes of transboundary Cr deposition in Singapore further increased by 3% per year, almost doubling from 6 ± 3 tonne Cr yr-1 in 2000 to around 11 ± 3 tonne Cr yr-1 in 2017. This post-2000 rapid increase may reflect the effects of globalisation, pro-export driven economic growth policies and increasing capital inflows to the whole region, including from Singapore, all of which combined to drive industrialisation throughout much of SEA. The current trend of increasing transboundary pollution from anthropogenic activity highlights an urgent need for effective collaboration among countries in SEA in order to improve well-being and help guarantee sustainable development throughout the region.

KW - air pollution

KW - environmental sustainability

KW - industrial pollution

KW - mass balance

KW - palaeolimnology

KW - Southeast Asia

KW - transboundary environmental governance

U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/abb5ce

DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/abb5ce

M3 - Article

SN - 1748-9326

VL - 15

JO - Environmental Research Letters

JF - Environmental Research Letters

IS - 10

M1 - 1040a5

ER -