Unprecedented environmental and energy impacts and challenges of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The rapid transmission tendency, severity, and wide geographical spread of newly emerged novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in different environmental matrices, including water, air, and soil, has posed severe health, environmental, energy, and economic challenges worldwide. Despite the severe health effects, unprecedented improvements in air quality in many countries due to emergency measures, and public behavior changes have been reported. SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in air and sewage samples in several studies across the globe. The use of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) could be a valuable method to monitor the outbreak of COVID-19, which requires fast and reliable methods for virus detection in sewage. However, water treatment companies face many pressures due to potential for aerosolization, PPE shortages, and changed usage patterns. In addition, the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the worldwide economy especially the energy sector, and its impact on our ecosystem required instant responses. This article discusses the recent developments and challenges faced in water, air, and energy resources, including renewables and non-renewables as the significant and interrelated components of the ecosystem. Furthermore, some recommendations have been directed, which may serve as a guideline to the scientists, legislators, and other stakeholders. A future roadmap has been proposed to overcome the tragic effects of COVID-19 and developing a sustainable environmental system to minimize the impact of such infectious outbreaks in the future.

COVID-19 Impact on Operation and Energy Consumption of Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) Systems

“…Considering the first question, how can HVAC designs adapt to both the normal situation and pandemic situation simultaneously? Three key issues have come to light: a) conventional HVAC systems have little ability to filter and kill viruses as revealed by Siddique and others [135] , and to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 spreading and cross infection during the pandemic; b) current HVAC systems are designed according to previous guidelines, and thus may not meet requirements during the pandemic, and fail to provide enough ventilation rate to dilute indoor air pollutant concentration; and c) HVAC system capacity may be insufficient to undertake the full heating and cooling load as presented in Ref. 50 with disabling air recirculation recommended to prevent the risk of cross infection.…”

The COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on the environment

“…1 ). All the environmental compartments have benefited of the restrictive measures adopted to contain the infection ( Siddique et al, 2021 ).

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Impact of COVID-19 on transportation and logistics: a case of China

“…One of the major challenges faced by land freight is increased manufactured goods that have created challenges for the land travelers for dealing with freight issues based on the arguments of Jain and Sharma (2020). It has been observed that the capacity for ocean transport has decreased, which has also increased the pressure on the land freight and badly affected the timely services for logistics and transportation, as referred to in the study of Siddique et al (2021). The significance of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a major shift from physical buying to online buying that is also one of the significant challenges in creating the increased pressure on the land freight, as referred to in the study of Benmarhnia (2020).…”