Beijing, April 23 (Report) — According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, to further enhance urban cleanliness, Beijing has fully launched the 2026 Spring Dust Control Special Action. The initiative uses AI intelligent recognition for video inspections and leverages big data analysis from public complaint platforms to identify dust issues and carry out targeted remediation.
According to reports, multiple rounds of source analysis of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Beijing indicate that dust is one of the main contributors to local emissions. Particularly in spring, dust issues are more prominent, with PM2.5 emission contributions being 2-3 times higher than in other seasons, significantly impacting air quality.
A relevant official from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment stated that this year, focusing on seasonal characteristics such as large-scale spring construction and frequent sandstorms, the dust control initiative prioritizes closed-loop remediation of high-complaint locations, standardized management of construction site entrances and exits, and refined construction practices for small-scale sites to address dust issues affecting residents. Since March, road dust load at construction site entrances and exits across the city has decreased by 18% year-on-year.
“We place greater emphasis on residents’ experiences, fully utilizing big data from complaint platforms to analyze dust issues that have been frequent and concentrated in complaints over the past two years. This forms a list of key locations and roads for closed-loop remediation, effectively resolving major concerns,” the official said.
Beijing has selected six areas: overhead line burial, bungalow renovation, landscaping, demolition, municipal roads, and municipal road pipelines. Based on different construction site types, dust control requirements such as “setting up enclosures, phased construction, and wet operations” have been specified to further improve refined management of small-scale construction sites.
The Beijing ecological environment department has strengthened the construction of a dust video monitoring platform, deepened the application of satellite remote sensing and mobile monitoring technologies, and continuously enriched AI recognition scenarios to improve problem detection and identification rates. For example, on March 24, through construction site video AI intelligent recognition, a construction project was found not implementing wet operations. The municipal department quickly forwarded the clue to law enforcement, and on-site inspectors verified and required the project to rectify the issue. By April 16, during a video inspection, the project had fully implemented wet operations, with all dust control measures in place.
“Such AI intelligent recognition algorithms have gradually been applied in daily work, with recognition accuracy exceeding 80% and problem identification capability reduced to hourly levels,” the official noted. By using technological means to detect issues and through joint guidance led by various industry departments, problems that are not rectified in a timely or adequate manner are promptly followed up, ensuring that dust control becomes a routine mechanism, contributing to sustained air quality improvement.
To effectively control dust, Beijing has also tailored measures to local conditions, actively promoting “green creation” benchmark projects. This includes fully advancing the application of fully enclosed construction technologies such as foundation pit air films, encouraging their use where conditions permit; creating “ultra-clean road sections” with high cleaning standards and low road dust load as demonstration points and street (township) demonstration areas; and establishing green shield enclosure benchmarks for construction sites, using green leadership to comprehensively elevate dust control levels.
At the Guangyuanli shantytown renovation project in Xicheng District, inside the air film structure, various construction machinery operates, yet there is no diesel smell inside. This is because all construction machinery at the site has been electrified. The use of foundation pit air films significantly reduces the impact of dust and noise on nearby residents, and zero-emission non-road mobile machinery makes the site greener and lower-carbon. Through coordinated pollution and carbon reduction, economic, environmental, and social benefits are achieved.
Going forward, Beijing will combine seasonal pollution characteristics, focusing on dust control to tap into management emission reduction potential, and continue the special dust control initiative. It will prioritize promoting new energy vehicles to tap into structural emission reduction potential, increasing the proportion of new energy vehicles in key industries. It will also tap into engineering emission reduction potential by launching a summer volatile organic compounds control campaign. Aimed at environmental quality improvement targets, it will focus on key areas, sectors, and critical links to fully drive emission reduction results.
