Impacts of the San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 pandemic on urban heat fluxes

Impacts of the COVID-19 confinement on air quality, the Land Surface Temperature and the urban heat island in eight cities of Andalusia (Spain)

“…At night, greater reduction in LST took place in inland cities, however. These findings are in line with the results obtained in a study of the Dwarka River Basin (India), where LST reductions of between 3 and 5 °C were obtained ( Mandal and Pal, 2020 ); in San Francisco Bay (USA), with an LST reduction between 5 and 8 °C ( Potter and Alexander, 2021 ); or with the reductions detected in seven cities in Saudi Arabia ( Alqasemi et al, 2021 ). Altogether, this circumstance indicates that the paralysis of tourism, industry and transport sectors caused by confinement significantly improves the temperature of the earth's surface.…”

“…Despite research studies that positively link environmental pollution with an increase in LST and the intensity of SUHI ( Schwarz et al, 2011 ; Li et al, 2011 ; Logan et al, 2020 ; Venter et al, 2020 ), variations due to the lockdown situation caused by the pandemic have hardly come to light in scientific publications. According to recent reports, decreases in the LST range from 0.13 °C for the city of Osaka ( Nakajima et al, 2021 ); 0.49 °C in Tokyo ( Fujibe, 2020 ); 1 °C in Montreal (Canada) ( Teufel et al, 2021 ); and 3 to 5 °C in the Dwarka River basin ( Mandal and Pal, 2020 ), alongside values between 5 and 8 °C in the San Francisco Bay area ( Potter and Alexander, 2021 ). A study involving the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai (India) reports a drop in the average intensity of the SUHI during the lockdown period amounting to 19.2% ( Ghosh et al, 2020 ).…”

Investigating the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on air quality, surface Urban Heat Island, air temperature and lighting energy consumption in City of Melbourne

“…These measures substantially changed the environment lighting energy consumption of the cities and the pattern of human activities. For example, drastic reductions were observed in the industrial (35%) and transportation activities (50%) in the San Francisco Bay area during a COVID-19 lockdown [ 8 ]. Some changes brought permanent alterations to urban areas (e.g.…”

Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19 Lockdown on the NO2 Concentrations and Urban Thermal Environment: Evidence from the Five Largest Urban Agglomerations in China

“…Therefore, the restriction of production and living caused by lockdown policy also had a positive impact on the urban thermal environment. Recent analyses have shown that the temperature of impervious surfaces in the San Francisco Bay Area declined by 3 • C during the lockdown period [33], while the mean land surface temperature of Dehradun decreased by 5.42% on average compared with the two previous years [34]. Coincidentally, there was an evident declining effect on surface urban heat islands in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates during the pandemic [35,36].…”