IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zib/zbnees/v5y2021i1p15-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact Of The Lockdown On Air Quality In Result Of Covid-19 Pandemic Over Hubei Province, China

Author

Listed:
  • Yu Taoa

    (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 101408, China)

  • Faisal Mumtaz

    (Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (AIRCAS). Faisal@Aircas.ac.cn (F.M).)

  • Barjeece Bashir

    (Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (AIRCAS). Faisal@Aircas.ac.cn (F.M).)

  • Hamid Faiz

    (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 101408, China)

  • Mariam Kareem

    (Department of Geography, Government College University Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan)

  • Adeel Ahmad

    (Department of Zoology, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan)

  • Hammad Ul Hassan

    (Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (AIRCAS). Faisal@Aircas.ac.cn (F.M))

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infectious respiratory disease becomes a global pandemic in few weeks from its start in December 2019 to early 2020. Various countries across the world including China went to lockdown and several caution were implemented to reduce the further spread of this infectious disease. Wuhan (China) was the first city to impose the lockdown for controlling the impact of COVID-19. The lockdown unexpectedly gives the scientific community a chance to investigate the influence of the human activity on air pollution in real world scenario. The present study attempted to investigate the impact of lockdown during the ongoing viral disease on the changes of fine particulate matters and some unhealthy gases i.e. PM2.5, PM10, SO2, CO, O3, AQI and NO2 over Hubei province of China, by using ground station data and TROPOMI satellite data. The air pollutants were compared as, (i) pre COVID-19 period (i.e. October-December 2019), (ii) throughout the lockdown in Hubei province (i.e. January 2020-March 2020) and Post lockdown duration (i.e. April 2020-June 2020). Results clearly showed that air quality was not secured due to high emission of CO, SO2, NO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 on Pre COVID-19 times, but under the lockdown continuously decrease in NO2 from (54 mg/cm3 to 26 mg/cm3), SO2 (10.5 mg/cm3 to 7.77 mg/cm3) PM2.5 (49.22 mg/cm3 to 44.34 mg/cm3), PM10 concentrations (80.83 mg/cm3 to 57.04 mg/cm3) and AQI (72.95 mg/cm3 to 49.64 mg/cm3) has been observed. Because lockdown shuts all anthropogenic activities like industrial work, traffic vehicles and various socio-economic activities, which developed a healthy change on air quality. Emission of unhealthy gases and particulates were quite clear during the lockdown but again increase after finishing the lockdown period. However, we don’t support the lockdown as a measure for the betterment of air quality as this has severely posed negative impacts on the socio-economic processes and progress, but changes in human behavior of using industries and vehicles can help us to improve the air quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu Taoa & Faisal Mumtaz & Barjeece Bashir & Hamid Faiz & Mariam Kareem & Adeel Ahmad & Hammad Ul Hassan, 2021. "The Impact Of The Lockdown On Air Quality In Result Of Covid-19 Pandemic Over Hubei Province, China," Environment & Ecosystem Science (EES), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 5(1), pages 15-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:zib:zbnees:v:5:y:2021:i:1:p:15-22
    DOI: 10.26480/ees.01.2021.15.22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://environecosystem.com/download/14728/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26480/ees.01.2021.15.22?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wenju Cai & Ke Li & Hong Liao & Huijun Wang & Lixin Wu, 2017. "Weather conditions conducive to Beijing severe haze more frequent under climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(4), pages 257-262, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Qianqian Yang & Qiangqiang Yuan & Tongwen Li & Huanfeng Shen & Liangpei Zhang, 2017. "The Relationships between PM 2.5 and Meteorological Factors in China: Seasonal and Regional Variations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Liu, Cuiping & Zhang, Feng & Miao, Lijuan & Lei, Yadong & Yang, Quan, 2020. "Future haze events in Beijing, China: When climate warms by 1.5 and 2.0°C," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 40(8), pages 3689-3700.
    3. Yue Tui & Jiaxin Qiu & Ju Wang & Chunsheng Fang, 2021. "Analysis of Spatio-Temporal Variation Characteristics of Main Air Pollutants in Shijiazhuang City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Muxue Liang & Hong Liao & Yue Huang & Zifang Qiao & Chenchen Tan & Ruoxin Liu, 2021. "A Questionnaire Case Study of Opinions of Chinese Agricultural Workers on the Coordinated Control of Emissions of Ammonia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Rui Lyu & Wei Gao & Yarong Peng & Yijie Qian & Qianshan He & Tiantao Cheng & Xingna Yu & Gang Zhao, 2022. "Fog–Haze Transition and Drivers in the Coastal Region of the Yangtze River Delta," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Fangjin Xu & Qingxu Huang & Huanbi Yue & Xingyun Feng & Haoran Xu & Chunyang He & Peng Yin & Brett A. Bryan, 2023. "The challenge of population aging for mitigating deaths from PM2.5 air pollution in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Huanbi Yue & Chunyang He & Qingxu Huang & Da Zhang & Peijun Shi & Enayat A. Moallemi & Fangjin Xu & Yang Yang & Xin Qi & Qun Ma & Brett A. Bryan, 2024. "Substantially reducing global PM2.5-related deaths under SDG3.9 requires better air pollution control and healthcare," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    8. Zhiyuan Wang & Xiaoyi Shi & Chunhua Pan & Sisi Wang, 2021. "Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of Environmental Air Quality and Its Relationship with Seasonal Climatic Conditions in Eastern China during 2015–2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-17, April.
    9. Li Yang & Chunyan Qin & Ke Li & Chuxiong Deng & Yaojun Liu, 2023. "Quantifying the Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of PM 2.5 Pollution and Its Determinants in 273 Cities in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Xiangxue Zhang & Changxiu Cheng, 2022. "Temporal and Spatial Heterogeneity of PM 2.5 Related to Meteorological and Socioeconomic Factors across China during 2000–2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Lei, Yadong & Zhang, Feng & Miao, Lijuan & Yu, Qiu-Run & Duan, Mingkeng & Fraedrich, Klaus & Yu, Zifeng, 2020. "Potential impacts of future reduced aerosols on internal dynamics characteristics of precipitation based on model simulations over southern China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 545(C).
    12. Guoliang Yun & Chen Yang & Shidong Ge, 2022. "Understanding Anthropogenic PM 2.5 Concentrations and Their Drivers in China during 1998–2016," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, December.
    13. Renfeng Ma & Congcong Wang & Yixia Jin & Xiaojing Zhou, 2019. "Estimating the Effects of Economic Agglomeration on Haze Pollution in Yangtze River Delta China Using an Econometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Ying Zhang & Song Xi Chen & Le Bao, 2023. "Air pollution estimation under air stagnation—A case study of Beijing," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), September.
    15. Mi Zhou & Yuanyu Xie & Chenggong Wang & Lu Shen & Denise L. Mauzerall, 2024. "Impacts of current and climate induced changes in atmospheric stagnation on Indian surface PM2.5 pollution," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Muhammad Azher Hassan & Tariq Mehmood & Ehtisham Lodhi & Muhammad Bilal & Afzal Ahmed Dar & Junjie Liu, 2022. "Lockdown Amid COVID-19 Ascendancy over Ambient Particulate Matter Pollution Anomaly," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-31, October.
    17. Xuechen Zhang & Huanfeng Shen & Tongwen Li & Liangpei Zhang, 2020. "The Effects of Fireworks Discharge on Atmospheric PM 2.5 Concentration in the Chinese Lunar New Year," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-19, December.
    18. Li, Jidong & Chen, Shijun & Wu, Yuqiang & Wang, Qinhui & Liu, Xing & Qi, Lijian & Lu, Xiuyuan & Gao, Lu, 2021. "How to make better use of intermittent and variable energy? A review of wind and photovoltaic power consumption in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Qianwen Cheng & Manchun Li & Feixue Li & Haoqing Tang, 2019. "Response of Global Air Pollutant Emissions to Climate Change and Its Potential Effects on Human Life Expectancy Loss," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, July.
    20. Yating Wan & Minya Xu & Hui Huang & Song Xi Chen, 2021. "A spatio‐temporal model for the analysis and prediction of fine particulate matter concentration in Beijing," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), February.

    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:zib:zbnees:v:5:y:2021:i:1:p:15-22. 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: Zibeline International Publishing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://environecosystem.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.