Understanding temporary reduction in atmospheric pollution and its impacts on coastal aquatic system during COVID-19 lockdown: a case study of South Asia

Shafeeque, Muhammad; Arshad, Arfan; Elbeltagi, Ahmed; Sarwar, Abid; Pham, Quoc Bao; Khan, Shahbaz Nasir; Dilawar, Adil; Al‐Ansari, Nadhir

doi:10.1080/19475705.2021.1885503

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…It is undeniable that all operations, such as transportation, educational institutions, workplaces, industries, and social sites, were operating normally before quarantine, but after quarantine was imposed, the urban mobility index dropped dramatically. Similarly, to the study of Shafeeque et al [59], our results evidence that the urban mobility trend was reduced by 60-70% in Pakistan during quarantine. An apparent reduction in public activities of up to 80% as a result of quarantine enforcement has been observed in Figure 3, but it started to increase again in the LL period.…”

Section: Covid-19 and Urban Mobilitysupporting

confidence: 90%

“…The results clearly show that urban mobility has significantly reduced during the SL of all the parameters except in the residential area, where it has increased compared to BL [52,59]. It is also evident that the mobility has started to rise in the LL compared to the SL because all the activities started in that period, but it is less than BL.…”

Section: Covid-19 and Urban Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 83%

“…However, during the pandemic lockdown period in 2020, a decrease in NO 2 concentration was discovered. Compared to other provinces, Punjab is rich in NO 2 production due to urbanization, heavy traffic, and industrialization [59,68]. The European Union Copernicus Program, via the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, released some new satellite images, claiming that NO 2 emissions were down~40-50% in March-April 2020 compared to the same time period over Pakistan [69].…”

Section: Covid-19 Lockdown Impact On Atmospheric Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Situation of Urban Mobility in Pakistan: Before, during, and after the COVID-19 Lockdown with Climatic Risk Perceptions

et al. 2021

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The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has impacted the usual global movement patterns, atmospheric pollutants, and climatic parameters. The current study sought to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on urban mobility, atmospheric pollutants, and Pakistan’s climate. For the air pollution assessment, total column ozone (O3), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and tropospheric column nitrogen dioxide (NO2) data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), aerosol optical depth (AOD) data from the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), and dust column mass density (PM2.5) data from the MERRA-2 satellite were used. Furthermore, these datasets are linked to climatic parameters (temperature, precipitation, wind speed). The Kruskal–Wallis H test (KWt) is used to compare medians among k groups (k > 2), and the Wilcoxon signed-rank sum test (WRST) is for analyzing the differences between the medians of two datasets. To make the analysis more effective, and to justify that the variations in air quality parameters are due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was used. The findings revealed that the limitations on human mobility have lowered emissions, which has improved the air quality in Pakistan. The results of the study showed that the climatic parameters (precipitation, Tmax, Tmin, and Tmean) have a positive correlation and wind speed has a negative correlation with NO2 and AOD. This study found a significant decrease in air pollutants (NO2, SO2, O3, AOD) of 30–40% in Pakistan during the strict lockdown period. In this duration, the highest drop of about 28% in NO2 concentrations has been found in Karachi. Total column O3 did not show any reduction during the strict lockdown, but a minor decline was depicted as 0.38% in Lahore and 0.55% in Islamabad during the loosening lockdown. During strict lockdown, AOD was reduced up to 23% in Islamabad and 14.46% in Lahore. The results of KWt and WRST evident that all the mobility indices are significant (p < 0.05) in nature. The GLM justified that restraining human activities during the lockdown has decreased anthropogenic emissions and, as a result, improved air quality, particularly in metropolitan areas.

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Section: Covid-19 and Urban Mobilitysupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Covid-19 and Urban Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Covid-19 Lockdown Impact On Atmospheric Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Situation of Urban Mobility in Pakistan: Before, during, and after the COVID-19 Lockdown with Climatic Risk Perceptions

et al. 2021

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“…In the coastal waters, Mishra et al [11] reported a decline of chlorophyll a and phytoplankton abundance due to the decrease of nitrogen supply from the land area. Shafeeque et al [40] reported that the strict lockdown resulted in decreases in turbidity and chlorophyll a along the coastal areas of India, as decreased human activities reduced the reduction of atmospheric NO 2 . Thus, with less pollutants and destruction associated with human activities, the waters in many places became clearer, cleaner, and facilitated self-rehabilitation.…”

Section: Positive Impacts Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Aquatic Environment and Implications on Aquatic Food Production

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulted in ecological changes of aquatic ecosystems, affected the aquatic food supply chain, and disrupted the socio-economy of global populations. Due to reduced human activities during the pandemic, the aquatic environment was reported to improve its water quality, wild fishery stocks, and biodiversity. However, the sudden surge of plastics and biomedical wastes during the COVID-19 pandemic masked the positive impacts and increased the risks of aquatic pollution, especially microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and disinfectants. The transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater treatment plants to natural water bodies could have serious impacts on the environment and human health, especially in developing countries with poor waste treatment facilities. The presence and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in human excreta, wastewaters, and sludge and its transmission to aquatic ecosystems could have negative impacts on fisheries and aquaculture industries, which have direct implications on food safety and security. COVID-19 pandemic-related environmental pollution showed a high risk to aquatic food security and human health. This paper reviews the impacts of COVID-19, both positive and negative, and assesses the causes and consequences of anthropogenic activities that can be managed through effective regulation and management of eco-resources for the revival of biodiversity, ecosystem health, and sustainable aquatic food production.

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“…Communications, transportation, culture, education, and industrial manufacturing were among the most affected sectors by the pandemic. While the strict lockdown measures came with social and human health consequences (Bai et al 2020;Sohrabi et al 2020) and adverse economic impacts worldwide (Lai et al 2020), positive effects on the environment were also observed due to the reduction of air pollutants such as tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) emission (Dutheil et al 2020;Shafeeque et al 2021). Nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) is a highly reactive pollutant of primarily anthropogenic origins, including road traffic and industrial activities (He et al 2020;Kurz et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of reduced deposition of atmospheric nitrogen on coastal marine eco-system during substantial shift in human activities in the twenty-first century

Mumtaz

Arshad

Mirchi

et al. 2021

Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk

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The novel infectious disease (COVID-19) took only a few weeks from its official inception in December 2019 to become a global pandemic in early 2020. Countries across the world went to lockdown, and various strict measures were implemented to reduce the further spread of the infection. Although, the strict lockdown measures were aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19, however, Its positive implications were also observed for the environmental conditions across the global regions. The present study attempted to explore the eco-restoration of coastal marine system in response to reduced deposition of atmospheric nitrogen (NO 2 ) emission during the substantial shift in human activities across the global metropolitan cities. Remotely data of NO 2 emission were taken from Ozone Monitoring Instrument and the coastal water quality along the marine system was estimated from MODIS-Aqua Level-3 using Semi-Analytic Sediment Model (SASM). The changes in tropospheric NO 2 in 2020s were also compared with the long-term average changes over the baseline period 2015 À 2019. A significant reduction in anthropogenic mobility (85 À 90%) has been observed in almost all countries over ARTICLE HISTORY

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Understanding temporary reduction in atmospheric pollution and its impacts on coastal aquatic system during COVID-19 lockdown: a case study of South Asia

Cited by 22 publications

References 59 publications

Situation of Urban Mobility in Pakistan: Before, during, and after the COVID-19 Lockdown with Climatic Risk Perceptions

Situation of Urban Mobility in Pakistan: Before, during, and after the COVID-19 Lockdown with Climatic Risk Perceptions

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Aquatic Environment and Implications on Aquatic Food Production

Impacts of reduced deposition of atmospheric nitrogen on coastal marine eco-system during substantial shift in human activities in the twenty-first century

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