Co-occurrence of urban heat and the COVID-19: Impacts, drivers, methods, and implications for the post-pandemic era

Wang, Wei; He, Bao‐Jie

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2022.104387

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Reduced mobility and transport of city dwellers have been considered to contribute an important part of the reduction in AHF during the COVID-19 lockdown [15,22]. Data from Prague suggest an 80% drop in checked-in flights at the Prague airport and a 30% decrease in the city's traffic intensity [29,30].…”

Section: Role Of Anthropogenic Heatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, they do not fully capture the spatial variations in thermal conditions within a city. Therefore, many studies have utilized satellite images and remote sensing methods to analyze the spatial variations of UHIs in response to the COVID-19 lockdown [22].…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many cities have implemented measures to promote and encourage active mobility (walking and cycling), as well as to revitalize urban areas. This includes increasing bike lanes, setting up low emission zones, limiting car traffic, and revitalizing parking lots [22]. In addition to providing health benefits during the pandemic, these measures have other potential co-benefits such as improved air quality, reduced noise pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.…”

Section: Future Research and Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a growing body of literature on the effects of lockdowns on UHIs [15,20,21]. A recent review of 29 studies on urban temperature anomalies during the COVID-19 lockdown revealed a decrease in UHI, LST, or SUHI, respectively, in the majority of 46 cities across various regions and climate zones [22]. The average LST decrease in developed (i.e., mid-and high-latitude) countries was smaller than that in developing countries, which is in line with findings from China [15] where the UHI-decline effect related to the lockdown weakened with increasing latitude.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of COVID-19 Lockdown on Urban Heat Island Dynamics in Prague, Czechia

Dogan,

Urban,

Hanel

2024

Remote Sensing

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Urban heat islands (UHI) are a well-known phenomenon adversely affecting human health and urban environments. The worldwide COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 provided a unique opportunity to investigate the effects of decreased emission of air pollution and anthropogenic heat flux (AHF) on UHI. Although studies have suggested that reduced AHF during lockdown decreased atmospheric UHI (AUHI) and surface UHI (SUHI), these results contain inherent uncertainties due to unaccounted weather variability and urban-rural dynamics. Our study comprehensively analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on AUHI and SUHI in Prague, Czechia. By selecting days with similar weather conditions, we examined changes in mean SUHI using MODIS satellite images and in AUHI based on air temperature from Prague weather stations for the Lockdown period during March–April 2020 versus a Reference period from March–April 2017–2019. Our results show that, in comparison to the Reference period, the Lockdown period was associated with a 15% (0.1 °C) reduction of SUHI in urbanized areas of Prague and a 0.7 °C decline in AUHI in the city center. Additionally, the observed decreases in satellite-based aerosol optical depth and nitrogen dioxide by 12% and 29%, respectively, support our hypothesis that the weakened UHI effects were linked to reduction in anthropogenic activities during the lockdown. Revealing the largest decrease of mean SUHI magnitude around the periphery of Prague, which has predominantly rural land cover, our study emphasizes the need to consider the effects of urban-rural dynamics when attributing changes in SUHI to AHF. Our findings provide additional insights into the role of reduced anthropogenic activities in UHI dynamics during the COVID-19 lockdown and offer policymakers a comprehensive understanding of how the complex interaction between urban and rural microclimate dynamics influences the SUHI phenomenon.

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Section: Role Of Anthropogenic Heatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Future Research and Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of COVID-19 Lockdown on Urban Heat Island Dynamics in Prague, Czechia

Dogan,

Urban,

Hanel

2024

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“… Botta and Yamasaki, 2020 , CAMS, 2022 , Esaka and Fujii, 2022 , Harmay and Choi, 2022 , Ito et al, 2021 , Kearl and Vogel, 2023 , O'Malley and Kikumoto, 2022 , ORNL, 2018 , Wang and He, 2023 , World Health Organization, , Xia et al, 2022 …”

Section: Uncited Referencesmentioning

confidence: 99%