Atmospheric environmental capacity is an important reference in environmental planning. To meet the PM2.5 standard, a new method is proposed to balance the capacity among cities of Guangdong, with screening of the most unfavorable meteorological year and combining it with the regional transportation calculated by the CAMx-PSAT module. Pollutant overloading and capacity scenarios were also calculated. The results showed that, under the constraints of the cities' annual PM2.5 ≤ 35 μg·m-3, the capacities of SO2, NOx, NH3, and PM2.5 in Guangdong were about 6.8×105 tons, 1.35×106 tons, 4.6×105 tons, and 5.1×105 tons, respectively. Based on the benchmark scenario, SO2 emissions in Guangdong were overloaded by 10%, and the emissions of NOx, NH3, and PM2.5 exceeded by 12%, 9%, and 20%, respectively, compared to those of the capacity scenario. Ranked by the number of overloaded species in Guangdong, the cities of Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, and Qingyuan were on top. When achieving the capacity scenario, the annual PM2.5 concentration in Guangdong was about 30 μg·m-3, which meets the national secondary ambient air quality standard.
Keywords: Guangdong; air quality simulation; atmospheric environmental capacity; overload rate; regional transportation.