COVID-19 is a pandemic disease that is actively spread over the globe in a few months. Most of the Nations took the appropriate measures including lockdown to reduce the risk of spreading and safe human health and life. Egypt took the measures of partial and complete lockdown from 15 th March till 30 th June 2020. Such short-term lockdown has had a significant impact on the reduction of emissions from transportation, industrial and human activities. This research used multi-data sensors from space to map the changes of air quality over Egypt in the first 6 months from January to June 2020 due to the lockdown and compare with previous years of 2018 and 2019. It is clearly observed that the air quality over the whole country is improved as a result of reducing pollutants emissions, with NO 2 reduced by 45.5%, CO emissions reduced by 46.23%, Ozone concentration decreased by about 61.1%, and AOD reduced by 68.5% compared to the previous 2 years. It is found that the lockdown is an effective mitigation measure against air pollution to improve air quality and reduce the air pollution that creates pressure on the human health and health system. It might be difficult to implement long lockdown, as a mitigation measure, due to its direct impact on social and economic needs. However, we recommend a complete lockdown for 2-3 days (long weekend) every at least 3 months, on national and/or global level, which will significantly enhance our air quality and improve the health environment of the planet.
Global warming has obtained more attention because of increasing global mean surface temperature since the late 19th century. Urbanization is considered an important contributor to global warming in big cities. Cairo is one of the heavily populated cities in the world, which has rapid urbanization that resulted in remarkable temperature variation compared to the rural surrounding areas. This phenomenon is known as "Urban Heat Islands" (UHIs) that influence both local and regional climate, environment, and socio-economic development. In this research time series of satellite images were used to map the spatial variability of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Heat Islands in Cairo city. Historical and contemporary record of Landsat images nearly 16 dates from 1990 to 2014 were used to retrieve LST and land cover categories. Results showed that LST was highly influenced by Land use and land cover changes; heat island effect was dominant in urbanized areas, bare/desert land and industrial zones (e.g. Shobra El-khema). The industrial zones, in particular, were possibly high due to the aluminum roof material plus the thermal energy from production activities and high emissions of air pollutants. The pattern of spatial distribution of heat islands has significantly changed from bare/desert land and built up areas (as warmer) to cultivated land and water bodies (as colder). To analyze the relationship between Heat Islands and land-cover changes a quantitative correlation between LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and Normalized Difference Build-up Index (NDBI) was employed. It was found that the correlation between LST and NDVI and MNDWI was negative with r 2 of 0.8 and 0.57 respectively; however, the correlation with NDBI was strongly positive with r 2 of 0.81. It is anticipated that the outcomes of this research will contribute to GEOSS for global integration and correlation.
Lakes are vulnerable to natural and man-made changes, thus they can be used as indicators of various effects of climate change and anthropogenic activity. Lake Qarun is one of Egypt's oldest lakes and the third lake in terms of area. It is a shallow (2-5 meters)
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