COVID-19 and the Improvement of the Global Air Quality: The Bright Side of a Pandemic (original) (raw)
Related papers
Global Air Quality and COVID-19 Pandemic: Do We Breathe Cleaner Air?
Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 2021
The global spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has challenged most countries worldwide. It was quickly recognized that reduced activities (lockdowns) during the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic produced major changes in air quality. Our objective was to assess the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on groundlevel PM2.5, NO2, and O3 concentrations on a global scale. We obtained data from 34 countries, 141 cities, and 458 air monitoring stations on 5 continents (few data from Africa). On a global average basis, a 34.0% reduction in NO2 concentration and a 15.0% reduction in PM2.5 were estimated during the strict lockdown period (until April 30, 2020). Global average O3 concentration increased by 86.0% during this same period. Individual country and continent-wise comparisons have been made between lockdown and business-as-usual periods. Universally, NO2 was the pollutant most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These effects were likely because its emissions were from sources that were typically restricted (i.e., surface traffic and non-essential industries) by the lockdowns and its short lifetime in the atmosphere. Our results indicate that lockdown measures and resulting reduced emissions reduced exposure to most harmful pollutants and could provide global-scale health benefits. However, the increased O3 may have
COVID-19 and Its Impact on Air Pollution
International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET), 2020
Primary Objective of this study is to discuss the effectiveness of COVID-19 on air pollution. We have collected data from NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and CPCB online portal for air quality data dissemination. The satellite images from the above mentioned agencies elucidate that quality of air has improved causing reduction in the air pollution during COVID-19.It was observed that Nitrogen Dioxide content was decreased in the air compared to same period last year. It suggests that COVID-19 lockdown mitigated air pollution across the globe. We will discuss data of nitrogen dioxide content this data in paper, and how much air pollution was controlled due to this lockdown.
A Comparative Analysis of COVID-19 Effects on air Pollution in Ten EU Cities in 2020
HAPSc Policy Briefs Series
The global pandemic has arguably induced many dramatic changes at all levels worldwide. The occurrence of some silver linings on the environment brought about a glimmer of hope and optimism. However, these are seen as rather short-lived and temporary mainly linked to lower economic output and the imposition of restrictive measures by the national governments to contain the spreading of the coronavirus. In such a context, the restart of the economy plausibly raises many concerns about the durability of those in the long run. An environmental sector that has attracted particular attention is air pollution which has seen significant improvements in urban centers and most polluted cities during the pandemic. Evidence shows that air pollution in the EU has decreased in 2020 as a result of reduced consumption of fossil fuels, road transport, lower economic output, and industrial activity, however, strong signs of retreat to pre-coronavirus levels are observed. The aim of this policy brief is to examine the effects of COVID-19 on air pollution by breaking down and comparing the average concentrations of three pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter (PM2.5), and (PM10), per month in ten major European cities in 2020 with the use of data from the European Environment Agency.
As a result of extreme modifications in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the status of air quality has recently been improved. This bibliometric study was conducted on a global scale to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air pollution, identify the emerging challenges, and discuss the future perspectives during the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For this, we have estimated the scientific production trends between 2020 and 2021 and investigated the contributions of countries, institutions, authors, and most prominent journals metrics network analysis on the topic of COVID-19 combined with air pollution research spanning the period between January 01, 2020, and June 21, 2021. The search strategy retrieved a wide range of 2003 studies published in scientific journals from the Web of Sciences Core Collection (WoSCC). The findings indicated that (1) publications on COVID-19 pandemic and air pollution were 990 (research articles) in 2021 with 1870 citations; however, the year 2020 witnessed only 830 research articles with a large number 16,600 of citations. (2) China ranked first in the number of publications (n = 365; 18.22% of the global output) and was the main country in international cooperation network, followed by the USA (n = 278; 13.87% of the global output) and India (n = 216; 10.78 of the total articles). (3) By exploring the co-occurrence and links strengths of keywords "COVID-19" (1075; 1092), "air pollution" (286; 771), "SARS-COV-2" (252; 1986). (4) The lessons deduced from the COVID-19 pandemic provide defined measures to reduce air pollution globally. The outcomes of the present study also provide useful guidelines for future research programs and constitute a baseline for researchers in the domain of environmental and health sciences to estimate the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air pollution.
Air Quality during COVID-19 in Four Megacities: Lessons and Challenges for Public Health
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
The study described in this manuscript analyzed the effects of quarantine and social distancing policies implemented due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on air pollution levels in four western megacities: São Paulo in Brazil; Paris in France; and Los Angeles and New York in the United States. The study investigated the levels of four air pollutants—Carbon monoxide (CO), Ozone (O3), Fine Particulate (PM2.5) and Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—during the month of March 2020, compared to 2015–2019, in the urban air of these metropolitan areas, controlling for meteorological variables. Results indicated reductions in the levels of PM2.5, CO and NO2, with reductions of the latter two showing statistical significance. In contrast, tropospheric ozone levels increased, except in Los Angeles. The beneficial health effects of cleaner air might also help prevent deaths caused by the epidemic of COVID-19 in megacities by diminishing pressure on hospitals and health equipment. Future ...
CEPR Covid Econ, 2021
This study investigates empirically the effects the new COVID-19 virus has had on European air quality. We focus on 31 European countries and three air pollutants, namely NO2, PM10, and PM2.5 and we start with a comparison of the air pollution levels before and after the pandemic, focusing on the years 2018-2019 on one side and 2020-2021 on the other. We find that the level of each pollutant dropped significantly after the beginning of the virus. In addition, we present an individual country analysis on how new monthly COVID-19 cases affect each pollutant for the years 2020 to 2021 and finally we present a fixed effects panel data analysis for the same years for the whole of Europe. We also consider how air pollution in earlier periods may have affected the spread of COVID-19 through its negative health effects. We conclude that the measures taken to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus did not only have negative impacts (as in the economy, tourism and other aspects) but they also had some positive effects mainly on the environment by reducing air pollution emissions due to restrictive government policies pursued to contain the spread of the virus. However, it is also clear that previous air pollution levels have acted as an important factor in explaining the COVID-19 spread due to their negative effects on health.
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on air pollution in 20 major cities around the world
2020
In order to fight against the spread of COVID-19, the most hard-hit countries in the spring of 2020 implemented different lockdown strategies. To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on air quality worldwide, Air Quality Index (AQI) data was used to estimate the change in air quality in 20 major cities on six continents. Our results show significant declines of AQI in NO 2 , SO 2 , CO, PM 2.5 and PM 10 in most cities, mainly due to the reduction of transportation, industry and commercial activities during lockdown. This work shows the reduction of primary pollutants, especially NO 2 , is mainly due to lockdown policies. However, preexisting local environmental policy regulations also contributed to declining NO 2 , SO 2 and PM 2.5 emissions, especially in Asian countries. In addition, higher rainfall during the lockdown period could cause decline of PM 2.5 , especially in Johannesburg. By contrast, the changes of AQI in ground-level O 3 were not significant in most of cities, as meteorological variability and ratio of VOC/NO x are key factors in ground-level O 3 formation.
Arabian Journal of Geosciences
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a novel pandemic disease and was first identified in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. It has affected the whole world in a short period of time and declared as a sixth global health emergency as it disturbed routine of human being and all life activities. This study presents a review focusing on ongoing pandemic as a disaster that provided a way of opportunity for change towards potentially positive and negative impacts on the environment. The observed positive aspect for environment in the context of short time impacts are improvement in air quality due to reduction in greenhouse gas emission, noise, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter < = 2.5 μm experienced in countries including India,
Remote Sensing
Shortly after the outbreak of the novel infectious disease (COVID-19) started at the end of 2019, it turned into a global pandemic, which caused the lockdown of many countries across the world. Various strict measures were adopted to reduce anthropogenic activities in order to prevent further spread and infection of the disease. In this study, we utilized continental scale remotely sensed data along with city scale in situ air quality observations for 2020 as well as data from the baseline period (2015–2019) to provide an early insight on air pollution changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, by combining both continental and city scales. For the continental scale analysis, data of NO2, SO2, and O3 were acquired from the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) and data of aerosol optical depth (AOD) were collected from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS). For city scale analysis, data of NO2, CO, PM2.5, O3, and SO2 were derived from ground-based air qua...
The Association Between COVID-19, Air Pollution, and Climate Change
Frontiers in Public Health, 2021
This mini-review aims to highlight both the positive and negative relationship between COVID-19 and air pollution and climate change based on current studies. Since, COVID-19 opened a bibliographic door to scientific production, so there was a limit to research at the moment. There were two sides to the relationship between COVID-19 and both air pollution and climate change. The associated with climate change, in particular, defines the relationship very loosely. Many studies have revealed a positive correlation between COVID-19 and each air pollutants, while some studies shown a negative correlation. There were a few studies that focused on the relationship between COVID-19 in terms of climate. Meanwhile, there were many studies explained the relationship with meteorological factors instead.