Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way Forward
Abstract The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) created enormous pressure across the globe due to an increasing number of COVID-19 infected cases. All the governments’ primary focus is to save humanity from this pandemic problem, and they have lockdown almost the entire nation to stop the spread of infe...
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer
2020-05-01
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| Series: | Aerosol and Air Quality Research |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.04.0171 |
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| author | Suresh Jain Tanya Sharma |
| author_facet | Suresh Jain Tanya Sharma |
| author_sort | Suresh Jain |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) created enormous pressure across the globe due to an increasing number of COVID-19 infected cases. All the governments’ primary focus is to save humanity from this pandemic problem, and they have lockdown almost the entire nation to stop the spread of infection. This lockdown resulted in a considerable impact on the global as well as a local economy that will take a long time to perform with business as usual scenario. However, improvement in the air quality of the cities across the globe has emerged as a key benefit of this lockdown. Therefore, this study aims to assess the overall impact of social and travel lockdown in five megacities of India; Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bangalore. The study evaluated the spatiotemporal variations in five criteria pollutants over two time periods, i.e., March–April 2019 and March–April 2020 and 10th–20th March 2020 (before lockdown) and 25th March to 6th April 2020 (during lockdown). The results highlighted a statistically significant decline in all the pollutants in all the megacities except for ozone. It was observed that the concentration of PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and CO declined by ~41% (66–39 µg m−3), ~52% (153–73 µg m−3), ~51% (39–19 µg m−3) and ~28% (0.9–0.65 mg m−3) during the lockdown phase in comparison to the before lockdown in Delhi, respectively. Similar decline in pollutant concentration was observed in other megacities as well. Further, the study conducted an expert survey to identify the possible challenges India might face after lockdown is over. All the experts said that reviving the economy will be a big challenge for the government, and it may result in some tradeoff while managing the air quality in the near future due to scarcity of funds, etc. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9a9d484df0ad4f03933cc9804a20ff27 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1680-8584 2071-1409 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-05-01 |
| publisher | Springer |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Aerosol and Air Quality Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-9a9d484df0ad4f03933cc9804a20ff272025-02-09T12:18:52ZengSpringerAerosol and Air Quality Research1680-85842071-14092020-05-012061222123610.4209/aaqr.2020.04.0171Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way ForwardSuresh Jain0Tanya Sharma1Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology TirupatiDepartment of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology TirupatiAbstract The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) created enormous pressure across the globe due to an increasing number of COVID-19 infected cases. All the governments’ primary focus is to save humanity from this pandemic problem, and they have lockdown almost the entire nation to stop the spread of infection. This lockdown resulted in a considerable impact on the global as well as a local economy that will take a long time to perform with business as usual scenario. However, improvement in the air quality of the cities across the globe has emerged as a key benefit of this lockdown. Therefore, this study aims to assess the overall impact of social and travel lockdown in five megacities of India; Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bangalore. The study evaluated the spatiotemporal variations in five criteria pollutants over two time periods, i.e., March–April 2019 and March–April 2020 and 10th–20th March 2020 (before lockdown) and 25th March to 6th April 2020 (during lockdown). The results highlighted a statistically significant decline in all the pollutants in all the megacities except for ozone. It was observed that the concentration of PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and CO declined by ~41% (66–39 µg m−3), ~52% (153–73 µg m−3), ~51% (39–19 µg m−3) and ~28% (0.9–0.65 mg m−3) during the lockdown phase in comparison to the before lockdown in Delhi, respectively. Similar decline in pollutant concentration was observed in other megacities as well. Further, the study conducted an expert survey to identify the possible challenges India might face after lockdown is over. All the experts said that reviving the economy will be a big challenge for the government, and it may result in some tradeoff while managing the air quality in the near future due to scarcity of funds, etc.https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.04.0171Interpolation techniqueArc GISAir qualityVulnerabilityEnvironmental health |
| spellingShingle | Suresh Jain Tanya Sharma Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way Forward Aerosol and Air Quality Research Interpolation technique Arc GIS Air quality Vulnerability Environmental health |
| title | Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way Forward |
| title_full | Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way Forward |
| title_fullStr | Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way Forward |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way Forward |
| title_short | Social and Travel Lockdown Impact Considering Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Air Quality in Megacities of India: Present Benefits, Future Challenges and Way Forward |
| title_sort | social and travel lockdown impact considering coronavirus disease covid 19 on air quality in megacities of india present benefits future challenges and way forward |
| topic | Interpolation technique Arc GIS Air quality Vulnerability Environmental health |
| url | https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.04.0171 |
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