Impacts of lockdown on the dynamics of forestry biomass, wildlife species and control of atmospheric pollution

Abstract

In this paper, we have formulated and analysed a mathematical model to investigate the impacts of lockdown on the dynamics of forestry biomass, wildlife species and pollution. For this purpose, we have considered a nonlinear system of four ordinary differential equations representing rates of change of the density of forestry biomass, the density of wildlife species, the concentration of pollutants and lockdown. Conditions for the existence, uniqueness and local stability of all equilibria along with the global stability of the interior equilibrium point are derived. Furthermore, conditions that influence the persistence of the system are obtained. By formulating an optimal control problem, the optimal strategies for minimizing the cost of implementation of lockdown as well as the concentration of pollutants are also studied. Numerical simulations are carried out to verify and validate our analytical findings. By this study, we have observed that implementation of lockdown for a sufficient period of time minimizes excessive harvesting of both forestry biomass and wildlife species and the concentration of pollutants in the environment. It is also found that lockdown policy is effective in the optimal control of atmospheric pollution. Therefore, lockdown plays a significant role in the dynamics of forestry biomass, wildlife species and control of pollution in the environment.