Akan, A.P.; Coccia, M. Changes of Air Pollution between Countries Because of Lockdowns to Face COVID-19 Pandemic. Appl. Sci.2022, 12, 12806.
Akan, A.P.; Coccia, M. Changes of Air Pollution between Countries Because of Lockdowns to Face COVID-19 Pandemic. Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 12806.
Akan, A.P.; Coccia, M. Changes of Air Pollution between Countries Because of Lockdowns to Face COVID-19 Pandemic. Appl. Sci.2022, 12, 12806.
Akan, A.P.; Coccia, M. Changes of Air Pollution between Countries Because of Lockdowns to Face COVID-19 Pandemic. Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 12806.
Abstract
The goal of this study is to develop a global analysis, based on data from 2015 to 2022, that clarifies the impact of containment policies (e.g., lockdown and quarantine) for Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) on the air pollution between countries of different continents. In this context, average changes of CO, NO2, SO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations based on measurements at ground level in January, February, and March for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 are compared with average values of 2015-2018 period between 300 cities of 19 countries in 5 continents. Results show that the maximum reduction in pollutant concentrations during this period is given by: CO (-4,367.5%) in France, NO2 (-150.5%) in China and Australia, SO2 (-154.1%) in Israel, O3 (-94.1%) in China, PM2.5 (-41.4%) in Germany and PM10 (-157.4%) in Turkey. Findings reveal that the effects of containment policies on air quality vary significantly between countries depending on different geographical characteristics of regions. This study has main environmental policy implications because it clarifies the critical role of severe control measure to reduce air pollution and support sustainable environment and development.
Keywords
COVID-19 lockdown; Restriction policies; Air pollution; Environmental science; Sustainability.
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
