How is COVID-19 affecting environmental pollution in US cities? Evidence from asymmetric Fourier causality test

Pata, Uğur Korkut

doi:10.1007/s11869-020-00877-9

Cited by 50 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…They reported a significant drop in the NO x concentration level in the urban areas. Further, Pata ( 2020 ) studied the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on environmental pollution in eight different US cities and found that the ongoing pandemic decreased the PM2.5 emission in the US. Similarly, Sarfraz et al ( 2020 ) investigated the relationship between COVID-19 and NO2 concentration level in New York City and revealed that environmental quality significantly improved during the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of lockdown on air quality over major cities across the globe during COVID-19 pandemic

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In present study, the variation in concentration of key air pollutants such as PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , SO 2 and O 3 during the pre-lockdown and post-lockdown phase has been investigated. In addition, the monthly concentration of air pollutants in March, April and May of 2020 is also compared with that of 2019 to unfold the effect of restricted emissions under similar meteorological conditions. To evaluate the global impact of COVID-19 on the air quality, ground-based data from 162 monitoring stations from 12 cities across the globe are analysed for the first time. The concentration of PM 2.5 , PM 10 and NO 2 were reduced by 20–34%, 24–47% and 32–64%, respectively, due to restriction on anthropogenic emission sources during lockdown. However, a lower reduction in SO 2 was observed due to functional power plants. O 3 concentration was found to be increased due to the declined emission of NO. Nevertheless, the achieved improvements were temporary as the pollution level has gone up again in cities where lockdown was lifted. The study might assist the environmentalist, government and policymakers to curb down the air pollution in future by implementing the strategic lockdowns at the pollution hotspots with minimal economic loss.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of lockdown on air quality over major cities across the globe during COVID-19 pandemic

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This trend of increasing air quality was also found in Lima, Peru (Velásquez and Lara, 2020), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ( Nakada and Urban, 2020 ) Almaty, Kazakhstan ( Kerimray et al, 2020 ), and in four Southern European cities (Nice, Rome, Valencia, and Turin; Sicard et al, 2020 ). Further, Pata (2020) studied the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on environmental pollution in eight different US cities and found that the ongoing pandemic decreased the PM 2.5 emission in the US. Similarly, Sarfraz et al (2020) investigated the relationship between COVID-19 and NO 2 concentration level in New York City and revealed that environmental quality significantly improved during the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global, continental, and national variation in PM2.5, O3, and NO2 concentrations during the early 2020 COVID-19 lockdown

Hong

Zhang

et al. 2021

Atmospheric Pollution Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lockdowns implemented in response to COVID-19 have caused an unprecedented reduction in global economic and transport activity. In this study, variation in the concentration of health-threatening air pollutants (PM 2.5 , NO 2 , and O 3 ) pre- and post-lockdown was investigated at global, continental, and national scales. We analyzed ground-based data from >10,000 monitoring stations in 380 cities across the globe. Global-scale results during lockdown (March to May 2020) showed that concentrations of PM 2.5 and NO 2 decreased by 16.1% and 45.8%, respectively, compared to the baseline period (2015–2019). However, O 3 concentration increased by 5.4%. At the continental scale, concentrations of PM 2.5 and NO 2 substantially dropped in 2020 across all continents during lockdown compared to the baseline, with a maximum reduction of 20.4% for PM 2.5 in East Asia and 42.5% for NO 2 in Europe. The maximum reduction in O 3 was observed in North America (7.8%), followed by Asia (0.7%), while small increases were found in other continents. At the national scale, PM 2.5 and NO 2 concentrations decreased significantly during lockdown, but O 3 concentration showed varying patterns among countries. We found maximum reductions of 50.8% for PM 2.5 in India and 103.5% for NO 2 in Spain. The maximum reduction in O 3 (22.5%) was found in India. Improvements in air quality were temporary as pollution levels increased in cities since lockdowns were lifted. We posit that these unprecedented changes in air pollutants were mainly attributable to reductions in traffic and industrial activities. Column reductions could also be explained by meteorological variability and a decline in emissions caused by environmental policy regulations. Our results have implications for the continued implementation of strict air quality policies and emission control strategies to improve environmental and human health.

show abstract

“…The usage of pesticides, soaps, detergents, single-use plastic etc. has increased many-fold in the past few months and is taking a heavy toll on the environment (Pata 2020 ; Zambrano-Monserrate et al 2020 ; Saadat et al 2020 ). Sanitization of roads, complexes and whole cities has been carried out in the past few months.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impact of COVID-19 pandemic: more negatives than positives

Ankit

Kumar

Jain

et al. 2021

Environmental Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coronaviruses are the well-known cause of severe respiratory, enteric and systemic infections in a wide range of animal hosts including man. The scientific interest on coronaviruses has increased since the outbreak of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) that initiated in Wuhan, China. This was soon declared a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ by World Health Organisation (WHO). Presently, the best strategy against this pandemic is prevention through regular hand and face washes, use of masks, gloves and personal protective equipment and social distancing. At the government level, the task is to perform as many tests as possible to identify coronavirus infected people and to isolate them to avoid the uncontrollable spread of the virus. The ongoing and future strategies against coronavirus ensue that huge quantity of masks, plastic products (personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, face shields, etc.) and chemicals (chloroxylenol, chlorine, H 2 O 2 , etc.) would be generated as waste in near future. Further, the amount of water consumption per person shall also increase. These effects can have unforeseen impacts on the environment. Apart from this, the ecological impacts on human–animal interactions can also be seen, such as people avoiding pets in coming future as a health and safety measure. The present review gives an overview of coronavirus, its current state of spread and environmental and ecological risks ensuing from the pandemic.

show abstract

How is COVID-19 affecting environmental pollution in US cities? Evidence from asymmetric Fourier causality test

Cited by 50 publications

References 25 publications

Impact of lockdown on air quality over major cities across the globe during COVID-19 pandemic

Impact of lockdown on air quality over major cities across the globe during COVID-19 pandemic

Global, continental, and national variation in PM2.5, O3, and NO2 concentrations during the early 2020 COVID-19 lockdown

Environmental impact of COVID-19 pandemic: more negatives than positives

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About