Coupled human-environment system amid COVID-19 crisis: A conceptual model to understand the nexus

Abstract

The world today is dealing with a havoc crisis due to the pervasive outbreak of COVID-19. As a preventive measure against the pandemic, government authorities worldwide have implemented and adopted strict policy interventions such as lockdown, social distancing, and quarantine to curtail the disease transmission. Consequently, humans have been experiencing several ill impacts, while the natural environment has been reaping the benefits of the interventions. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the interlinked relationship between human society and the natural environment amid the current crisis. Herein, we performed a meta-analysis of existing literature reporting the various impacts of COVID-19 on human society and the natural environment. A conceptual model was developed to portray and address how the interaction of the existing elements of both sub-components of the coupled human-environment system (CHES) – human society and natural environment – are impacted by the government interventions. Results revealed a suite of positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 on both the sub-components. Our model provides an explicit impression of the complex nexus of CHES amid the current crisis. The proposed conceptual model could help in understanding the complex nexus by identifying the route of short-term impacts of COVID-19 measures and thus may aid in identifying priority areas for discussion and planning in similar crises as well.

Environment, Biodiversity and Soil Security: A New Dimension in the Era of COVID-19

“…There is a very close relationship between the environment and COVID-19 as described by several recent reports (Wu et al 2021), the transmission of COVID-19 in the environment (Juan-Reyes et al 2021), the conceptual model illustrating the complex interactions of the coupled environment-human-system amid COVID-19 crisis (Sarkar et al 2021),the global environmental changeunder COVID-19 pandemic (Barouki 2021), the complexity of the interplay between COVID-19 and obesity (Hill et al 2021), the increased plastic environmental pollution rate due to COVID-19 pandemic (Patrício Silva et al 2021), the impact of COVID-19 on environmental pollution levels particularly air pollution (Liu et al 2021;Mostafa et al 2021). One of the most important environmental issues is the biodiversity of soils and plants (Platto et al 2021).…”

Financial development during COVID-19 pandemic: the role of coronavirus testing and functional labs

“…The increased need for coronavirus testing capacities may shorten the learning curves by sharing knowledge and technological spillovers (Kumar et al 2020). The technical absorptive capacity is not only helpful to mitigate negative environmental concerns, but can be further used in many healthcare interventions to reduce the risk of infectious diseases (Sarkar et al 2020, Cheng et al 2020, Kanwal and Awan 2020, Tromberg et al 2020. The financial risk reporting based on generating algorithms can use to avoid bankruptcy, which required prudential economic policies to prevent it from systemic risk (Kou et al 2014(Kou et al , 2019(Kou et al , 2021Chao et al 2019Chao et al , 2020.…”

Monitoring the presence and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in water-food-environmental compartments: State of the knowledge and research needs

“…The current COVID-19 pandemic and the various implemented measures had offered the planet earth positive and negative impacts, which majorly relay back to the environmental compartments such as soil, water, and air while extending to the food and food materials ( Anand et al, 2021 ; Sarkar et al, 2021 ; Adelodun et al, 2021a , Adelodun et al, 2021b ; Núñez-Delgado, 2020 ; Rizou et al, 2020 ). For instance, the country-wide lockdown in different nations of the world has impacted greatly on the emission level and waste generations.…”