Changes in air pollution during COVID-19 lockdown in Spain: A multi-city study

Briz‐Redón, Álvaro; Belenguer-Sapiña, Carolina; Serrano‐Aroca, Ãngel

doi:10.1016/j.jes.2020.07.029

Cited by 165 publications

(167 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…We have recently demonstrated that the Spanish lockdown did not decrease air pollution (NO2, CO, SO2, and PM10 ) considering meteorological factors on the pollutants' levels (Briz-Redón et al, 2020). Furthermore, the O3 levels were generally increased during this period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

A city-level analysis of air pollution, climate and COVID-19 early spread during the Spanish lockdown

Briz‐Redón¹,

Belenguer-Sapiña

Serrano‐Aroca

2020

Preprint

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The COVID-19 outbreak has escalated into the worse pandemic of the present century. The rapid spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has caused devastating health and economic crises all over the world, with Spain being one of the worst affected countries in terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths per inhabitant. In this situation, the Spanish Government declared the lockdown of the country with the aim of flattening the epidemic curve. The variations of air pollution in terms of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels in 8 cities of Spain are analyzed here considering the effect of meteorology during the COVID-19 lockdown period (from March 15th to April 12th 2020). The results of the analysis show that the 4-week Spanish lockdown was not long enough to reduce the PM2.5 levels in all the cities considered. These reductions were less than those expected, despite the drastically reduced human activity. Furthermore, no associations between COVID-19 accumulated cases and PM2.5 exposure or environmental conditions (temperature, precipitation, wind speed, sunlight hours, maximum pressure) were found during the early spread of the pandemic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

A city-level analysis of air pollution, climate and COVID-19 early spread during the Spanish lockdown

Briz‐Redón¹,

Belenguer-Sapiña

Serrano‐Aroca

2020

Preprint

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“…Adicionalmente, a raíz de las investigaciones presentadas, surge la necesidad de evaluar los contaminantes atmosféricos considerando los factores meteorológicos (60) . En particular, Tosepu et al (61) analizaron que el nivel medio diario de las concentraciones de O3 fue positivo correlacionado con la temperatura promedio diaria, corroborado por Dantas et al (28) , quienes consideran que las altas temperaturas y los índices de radiación solar favorecen la formación de ozono.…”

Section: Impacto De La Meteorologíaunclassified

Perspectiva del COVID-19 sobre la contaminación del aire

Ale

Moreno-Salazar

Luque-Zúñiga

2020

Rev. Soc. cient. Parag.

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La pandemia COVID-19 genera preocupación en todo el mundo, desde que el 30 de enero se declaró como emergencia de salud mundial (WHO), lo cual trajo consigo el cambio en el estilo de vida de la población, cierre de sistemas de transporte, paralización de actividades económicas, reduciendo las emisiones de contaminantes al ambiente, causando la mejora de la calidad del aire en muchas ciudades a nivel mundial. Hasta el momento, se han publicado varios estudios de revisión enfocados en los impactos ambientales por COVID-19, sin embargo, ninguno se enfoca específicamente en la contaminación del aire. Por lo cual, el objetivo principal fue presentar una revisión basada en un análisis integral de los estudios publicados abordando implicancias teóricas usadas dentro de los estudios. Se analizaron 68 estudios, los cuales se publicaron en 17 revistas hasta agosto del 2020. Además, se abordan posibles futuras investigaciones en relación al tema. Finalmente se exponen las conclusiones de la presente revisión.

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“…These measures, aimed at containing the virus spread [19–23], have focused on social distancing and population confinement, as well as the cease of non-essential productive and social activities. Overall, the measures have contributed to a global diminishing of human activities [24]. This abrupt and dramatic disruption of most human social and economic activities have already had quantifiable effects on urban environments by marked reductions in air pollution [25–27] and noise [28,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the most noticeable and generalized measure has been applying certain degree of population lockdown, which renders our city streets empty and virtually silent. This situation provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study urban wildlife responses to less active, noisy and polluted cities and gain unprecedented mechanistic insights into how human activities affect wildlife [24,30,31]. Product of the human lockdown, unusual observations of animals in urban areas worldwide have flooded the media and the internet planting in the social imaginary the idea that “nature is getting back its space” ( sensu [32]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Product of the human lockdown, unusual observations of animals in urban areas worldwide have flooded the media and the internet planting in the social imaginary the idea that “nature is getting back its space” ( sensu [32]). Although plausible, this idea is, in most cases, based on anecdotal records, sometimes false [32], without any quantitative scientific investigation supporting such claim [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid behavioural response of urban birds to COVID-19 lockdown

Gordo

Brotons

Herrando

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Biodiversity is threatened by the current exponential growth of urban areas. However, it is still poorly understood how animals can cope with and adapt to these rapid and dramatic transformations of natural environments. The COVID-19 pandemic provides us with a unique opportunity to unveil the adaptive mechanisms involved in this process. Lockdown measures imposed in most countries are causing an unprecedented reduction of human activities giving us an experimental setting to assess the effects of our lifestyle on biodiversity. We studied the birds’ response to the Spanish population lockdown by using more than 200,000 bird records collected by a citizen science project. We compared the occurrence and detectability of birds during the spring 2020 lockdown with baseline data from previous years in the same urban areas and dates. We found that birds did not increase their probability of occurrence in urban areas during the lockdown, refuting the hypothesis that nature has recovered its space in human emptied urban areas. However, we found an increase in bird detectability, especially during early morning, suggesting a rapid change in the birds’ daily routines in response to quitter and less crowded cities. In conclusion, urban birds show high behavioral plasticity to rapidly adapt to novel environmental conditions, as those imposed by the COVID-19.

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Changes in air pollution during COVID-19 lockdown in Spain: A multi-city study

Abstract: Highlights Variations in air quality in terms of CO, SO 2 , PM 10 , O 3 and NO 2 levels were studied. The lockdown of Spain was not able to reduce severe air pollution in all its forms. Significant reductions of NO 2 levels were achieved in most cities. Increases of… Show more

Cited by 165 publications

References 45 publications

A city-level analysis of air pollution, climate and COVID-19 early spread during the Spanish lockdown

A city-level analysis of air pollution, climate and COVID-19 early spread during the Spanish lockdown

Perspectiva del COVID-19 sobre la contaminación del aire

Rapid behavioural response of urban birds to COVID-19 lockdown

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