Has air quality improved in Ecuador during the COVID-19 pandemic? A parametric analysis

Zambrano-Monserrate, Manuel A.; Ruano, María Alejandra

doi:10.1007/s11869-020-00866-y

Cited by 54 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…On July 11, 2020, Italy has introduced travel restrictions on 13 countries to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and urged its citizens to avoid international travel (Shehzad et al 2020 ). All these measures are helping governments around the world to limit the exposure from Covid-19 (Zambrano-Monserrate and Ruano 2020 ). As a consequence, transportation, businesses, and industrial shutdowns have contributed towards a significant drop in GHG emissions, i.e., in comparison with 2019, air pollutants in New York have dropped by 50%, coal use in China has decreased by 40%, and a 25% reduction in GHG emissions has been recorded in the last 3 months (Gautam 2020 ).…”

Section: Covid-19 Quarantine Policy and Impact On Air Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A brief review of socio-economic and environmental impact of Covid-19

Bashir

Shahzad

2020

Air Qual Atmos Health

234

164

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In recent months, Covid-19 has caused significant global social and economic distress. Governments and health officials around the world have introduced mandatory preventive measures to combat Covid-19, i.e., hand sanitizers, gloves, and masks, which have contributed to large quantities of medical wastes. Social distancing and mandatory lockdown have also been put in place to protect people from Covid-19. This epidemic has caused severe demographic changes and unemployment, and economic activities have been shut down to save human lives. Transportation and travel industries are most severely hit as global tourism has fallen to almost zero in recent months; as a solution, economic institutes have introduced stimulus packages worth more than $6 trillion. However, restricted economic activities have also contributed towards a cleaner environment. However, environmental changes are not permanent, and the pollution level may rise again in the future. As a result, current research suggests that policymakers must introduce stringent environmental policies to promote clean energy.

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Section: Covid-19 Quarantine Policy and Impact On Air Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A brief review of socio-economic and environmental impact of Covid-19

Bashir

Shahzad

2020

Air Qual Atmos Health

234

164

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“…However, there was a noticeable increase of ozone pollution by 36% in Wuhan (China), 27% in Turin (Italy), 24% in Nice (France), 14% in Rome (Italy), and 2.4% in Valencia (Spain) during lockdown (Sicard et al 2020 ). In Ecuador, concentrations of NO2 and PM2.5 reduced significantly since introduction of lockdown, but O3 concentrations have grown (Zambrano-Monserrate and Ruano 2020 ). A study (Bilal et al 2020 ) found that PM2.5, O3, and NO2 have a significant relationship with cases of COVID-19 in Germany.…”

Section: Environmental and Economic Impact Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of COVID-19 outbreak on urban health and environment

Girdhar

Kapur²,

Kumar

et al. 2020

Air Qual Atmos Health

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The WHO announced coronavirus disease a Public Health Emergency on 30 January 2020, and it spreads across the whole planet. Aftermath of outbreak of this disease at the global level is more frightening and panicking than anyone's worst nightmare. With more than 23 mln positive coronavirus cases and more than 800,000 causalities all over the world, the potential of this virus cannot be undermined. This pandemic has victimized all human beings residing on 209 countries and territories of the world. It emerged as an unbeatable global challenge that the world has never witnessed before. Consequently, the affected countries have sealed their borders and made populations reside in their homes until the pandemic is over. Thus, the victims of coronavirus are not only the ones who are exposed to it but also the ones who are affected by the lockdown imposed by the governments. The paper aims to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on air pollution of various countries. Papers indicating the relationship between air pollution levels and lockdown measures are analyzed. The dramatic U-turn from environmental degradation is definitely a silver lining in these black clouds. This paper reviews the repercussions of the pandemic in some nations, while warlike preparations continue to fight it. COVID-19 has dramatically improved the quality of air. Also, it has greatly affected the economy of various countries due to lockdown.

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“…Nevertheless, in spite of the significant improvement of the air quality in many regions, it had a short-term effect, since during the gradual increase of human activity after lockdown, there was an increase of emissions up to the lockdown period ( Bherwani et al, 2020 ; Filonchyk et al, 2020a , 2020c ; Wang and Su, 2020 ). The majority of studies covered different regions of Asia and Latin America ( Broomandi et al, 2020 ; Dantas et al, 2020 ; Mahato et al, 2020 ; Siciliano et al, 2020 ; Velásquez and Lara, 2020 ; Zambrano-Monserrate and Ruano, 2020 ). Only a small number of studies examined regions in Europe, including various areas in Italy ( Bontempi et al 2020 ; Zoran et al, 2020 ) and Spain ( Baldasano et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%