LAUSR

Abstract Rapid urbanization in China has led to increasingly serious air pollution, mainly particulate matter (PM) and NOx, which has caused significant negative impacts on human health. In typical water network cities such as Wuhan, the purification of air pollution through the ecological effect of water bodies is an effective way to implement improvements. In this study, we conducted correlation analysis and established linear regression models to explore the relationship between water surface area and PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 concentrations by using pollutant monitoring data 2017, combined with water body information in remote sensing images. We found that the stability of concentration of particulate matters was low in areas where free water exists, which indicates that water has a role in absorption and minimization of PM. We also found that the concentrations of the three pollutants were strongly and negatively correlated with the free surface water coverage, with NO2 > PM2.5 > PM10, and the concentration of PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 was decreased by 2.45%, 2.96% and 9.65% respectively when water surface area increased by 10%. In addition, increasing water surface coverage in a specific size region can most effectively reduce pollutant concentrations.