IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2020i1p118-d468029.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on Local Vehicular Traffic and Its Consequences for the Environment: The Case of the City of Reggio Emilia (Italy)

Author

Listed:
  • Samuele Marinello

    (En&Tech Interdepartmental Center, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy)

  • Francesco Lolli

    (En&Tech Interdepartmental Center, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy
    Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy)

  • Rita Gamberini

    (En&Tech Interdepartmental Center, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy
    Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy)

Abstract

The COVID-19 health emergency has imposed the need to limit and/or stop non-essential economic and commercial activities and movement of people. The objective of this work is to report an assessment of the change in vehicle flows and in air quality of a specific study area in the north of Italy, comparing the periods February–May 2020 and February–May 2019. Circulating vehicles have been measured at nine characteristic points of the local road network of the city of Reggio Emilia (Italy), while atmospheric pollutant concentrations have been analysed using data extracted from the regional air quality monitoring network. The results highlight a rapid decline in the number of vehicles circulating in 2020 (with values of up to −82%). This has contributed to a reduction in air concentrations of pollutants, in particular for NO 2 and CO (over 30% and over 22%, respectively). On the other hand, O 3 has increased (by about +13%), but this is expected. Finally, the particulate matter grew (about 30%), with a behaviour similar to the whole regional territory. The empirical findings of this study provide some indications and useful information to assist in understanding the effects of traffic blocking in urban areas on air quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuele Marinello & Francesco Lolli & Rita Gamberini, 2020. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on Local Vehicular Traffic and Its Consequences for the Environment: The Case of the City of Reggio Emilia (Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2020:i:1:p:118-:d:468029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1/118/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1/118/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhang, Yahua & Zhang, Anming & Wang, Jiaoe, 2020. "Exploring the roles of high-speed train, air and coach services in the spread of COVID-19 in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 34-42.
    2. Alfredo Aloi & Borja Alonso & Juan Benavente & Rubén Cordera & Eneko Echániz & Felipe González & Claudio Ladisa & Raquel Lezama-Romanelli & Álvaro López-Parra & Vittorio Mazzei & Lucía Perrucci & Darí, 2020. "Effects of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Urban Mobility: Empirical Evidence from the City of Santander (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Wen, Yifan & Zhang, Shaojun & Zhang, Jingran & Bao, Shuanghui & Wu, Xiaomeng & Yang, Daoyuan & Wu, Ye, 2020. "Mapping dynamic road emissions for a megacity by using open-access traffic congestion index data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julia Jadin & Florine Le Henaff, 2024. "The Differential impact of Covid-19 on Household Carbon Footprint: A Gender Perspective," Working Papers ECARES 2024-09, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fang, Da & Guo, Yan, 2022. "Flow of goods to the shock of COVID-19 and toll-free highway policy: Evidence from logistics data in China," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Muley, Deepti & Ghanim, Mohammad Shareef & Mohammad, Anas & Kharbeche, Mohamed, 2021. "Quantifying the impact of COVID–19 preventive measures on traffic in the State of Qatar," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 45-59.
    3. Crowley, Frank & Daly, Hannah & Doran, Justin & Ryan, Geraldine & Caulfield, Brian, 2021. "The impact of labour market disruptions and transport choice on the environment during COVID-19," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 185-195.
    4. Veronika Harantová & Ambróz Hájnik & Alica Kalašová & Tomasz Figlus, 2022. "The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Traffic Flow Characteristics, Emissions Production and Fuel Consumption at a Selected Intersection in Slovakia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Andre Python & Andreas Bender & Marta Blangiardo & Janine B. Illian & Ying Lin & Baoli Liu & Tim C.D. Lucas & Siwei Tan & Yingying Wen & Davit Svanidze & Jianwei Yin, 2022. "A downscaling approach to compare COVID‐19 count data from databases aggregated at different spatial scales," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(1), pages 202-218, January.
    6. Gaskin, Darrell J. & Zare, Hossein & Delarmente, Benjo A., 2021. "Geographic disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths: The role of transportation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 35-46.
    7. Hou, Meng & Wang, Kun & Yang, Hangjun, 2021. "Hub airport slot Re-allocation and subsidy policy to speed up air traffic recovery amid COVID-19 pandemic --- case on the Chinese airline market," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Borsati, Mattia & Nocera, Silvio & Percoco, Marco, 2022. "Questioning the spatial association between the initial spread of COVID-19 and transit usage in Italy," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    9. Yiu, Cho Yin & Ng, Kam K.H. & Yu, Simon C.M. & Yu, Chun Wah, 2022. "Sustaining aviation workforce after the pandemic: Evidence from Hong Kong aviation students toward skills, specialised training, and career prospects through a mixed-method approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 179-192.
    10. Sun, Xiaoqian & Wandelt, Sebastian & Zhang, Anming, 2021. "Technological and educational challenges towards pandemic-resilient aviation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 104-115.
    11. Li, Siping & Zhou, Yaoming & Kundu, Tanmoy & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing, 2021. "Spatiotemporal variation of the worldwide air transportation network induced by COVID-19 pandemic in 2020," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 168-184.
    12. Oum, Tae Hoon & Wang, Kun, 2020. "Socially optimal lockdown and travel restrictions for fighting communicable virus including COVID-19," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 94-100.
    13. Nanath, Krishnadas & Balasubramanian, Sreejith & Shukla, Vinaya & Islam, Nazrul & Kaitheri, Supriya, 2022. "Developing a mental health index using a machine learning approach: Assessing the impact of mobility and lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    14. Yaqi Wang & Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso & Claudiu Forgaci, 2022. "Urban Pandemic Vulnerability and COVID-19: A New Framework to Assess the Impacts of Global Pandemics in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-19, April.
    15. Li, Tao, 2020. "A SWOT analysis of China's air cargo sector in the context of COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Hong, Seock-Jin & Savoie, Michael & Joiner, Steve & Kincaid, Timothy, 2022. "Analysis of airline employees’ perceptions of corporate preparedness for COVID-19 disruptions to airline operations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 45-55.
    17. Xue, Dabin & Liu, Zhizhao & Wang, Bing & Yang, Jian, 2021. "Impacts of COVID-19 on aircraft usage and fuel consumption: A case study on four Chinese international airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    18. Wang, Jiaoe & Xiao, Fan & Dobruszkes, Frédéric & Wang, Wei, 2023. "Seasonality of flights in China: Spatial heterogeneity and its determinants," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    19. Mutascu, Mihai & Sokic, Alexandre, 2023. "Air transportation under COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: A wavelet analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 155-181.
    20. Lu Wang & Xue Chen & Yan Xia & Linhui Jiang & Jianjie Ye & Tangyan Hou & Liqiang Wang & Yibo Zhang & Mengying Li & Zhen Li & Zhe Song & Yaping Jiang & Weiping Liu & Pengfei Li & Xiaoye Zhang & Shaocai, 2022. "Operational Data-Driven Intelligent Modelling and Visualization System for Real-World, On-Road Vehicle Emissions—A Case Study in Hangzhou City, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-22, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2020:i:1:p:118-:d:468029. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.