Examining the Economic and Environmental Impacts of COVID-19 Using Earth Observation Data

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected almost 73 million people and is responsible for over 1.63 million fatalities worldwide since early December 2019, when it was first reported in Wuhan, China. In the early stages of the pandemic, social distancing measures, such as lockdown restrictions, were applied in a non-uniform way across the world to reduce the spread of the virus. While such restrictions contributed to flattening the curve in places like Italy, Germany, and South Korea, it plunged the economy in the United States to a level of recession not seen since WWII, while also improving air quality due to the reduced mobility. Using daily Earth observation data (Day/Night Band (DNB) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Suomi-NPP and NO2 measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument TROPOMI) along with monthly averaged cell phone derived mobility data, we examined the economic and environmental impacts of lockdowns in Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Washington DC from February to April 2020—encompassing the most profound shutdown measures taken in the U.S. The preliminary analysis revealed that the reduction in mobility involved two major observable impacts: (i) improved air quality (a reduction in NO2 and PM2.5 concentration), but (ii) reduced economic activity (a decrease in energy consumption as measured by the radiance from the DNB data) that impacted on gross domestic product, poverty levels, and the unemployment rate. With the continuing rise of COVID-19 cases and declining economic conditions, such knowledge can be combined with unemployment and demographic data to develop policies and strategies for the safe reopening of the economy while preserving our environment and protecting vulnerable populations susceptible to COVID-19 infection.

The impact of coal combustion, nitrous oxide emissions, and traffic emissions on COVID-19 cases: a Markov-switching approach

“…The previous studies mostly limited their findings on the following aspects, which includes (i) social and administrative issues regarding the COVID-19 pandemic (Moon 2020 ; Anser et al 2020a ; Ansell et al 2020 ), (ii) increased global poverty risk by spreading infectious diseases (Buheji et al 2020 ; Anser et al 2020b ), (iii) COVID-19 measures decrease carbon emissions and increase fertility rate (Anser et al 2020c ; Han et al 2021 ), (iv) financial depression in the time of COVID-19 (Thayer and Gildner 2020 ; Anser et al 2021a ; Ettman et al 2020 ), (v) COVID-19 vaccination for cancer patients (Ribas et al 2021 ), and (vi) behavioral changes and worries due to coronavirus spread (Barber and Kim 2021 ). At the same time, few studies show the prevalence of COVID-19 in photochemical smog, for instance, Straka et al ( 2021 ), McClatchey et al 2021 , and Li et al ( 2021 ). These studies are limited to show the few smog factors to assess environmental and health quality across countries.…”

Lockdown induced night-time light dynamics during the COVID-19 epidemic in global megacities

“…In practice, the lockdown ban effectively restrained the spread of the pandemic ( Jia et al, 2020 , Lai et al, 2020 ). Meanwhile, the lockdown ban significantly changed the rhythm of daily life and social activities of urban residents, bringing unprecedented influences on our natural environments and socioeconomic systems ( Straka et al, 2021 ).…”

Positive global environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: a review

“…There was also a review that focused on the negative impact of the pandemic on socio-economic factors and the positive environmental impact on air and water quality (Saadat et al, 2020). Straka et al discussed improved air quality during the pandemic in the United States (Straka et al, 2021). Another study which examined the effect of meteorological factors on COVID-19 health outcomes reported that high temperature and high humidity minimise the transmission of COVID-19 but when the temperature, wind speed, dew or frost point, precipitation, and surface pressure are low, the transmission is enhanced (Sarkodie & Owusu, 2020).…”