Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates

The 2019 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus Diseases (COVID-19) has posed a substantial threat to public health and major global economic losses. The Northern Emirates of the United Arab Emirates (NEUAE) had imposed intense preventive lockdown measures. On the first of April...

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Autores principales: Alqasemi, Abduldaem S., Hereher, Mohamed E., Kaplan, Gordana, Al-Quraishi, Ayad M. Fadhil, Saibi, Hakim
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7833878/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33434848
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144330
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author Alqasemi, Abduldaem S.
Hereher, Mohamed E.
Kaplan, Gordana
Al-Quraishi, Ayad M. Fadhil
Saibi, Hakim
author_facet Alqasemi, Abduldaem S.
Hereher, Mohamed E.
Kaplan, Gordana
Al-Quraishi, Ayad M. Fadhil
Saibi, Hakim
author_sort Alqasemi, Abduldaem S.
collection PubMed
description The 2019 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus Diseases (COVID-19) has posed a substantial threat to public health and major global economic losses. The Northern Emirates of the United Arab Emirates (NEUAE) had imposed intense preventive lockdown measures. On the first of April 2020, a lockdown was implemented. It was assumed, due to lower emissions, that the air quality and Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity (SUHII) had been strengthened significantly. In this research, three parameters for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO(2)), Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), and SUHII variables were examined through the NEUAE. we evaluated the percentage of the change in these parameters as revealed by satellite data for 2 cycles in 2019 (March 1st to June 30th) and 2020 (March 1st to June 30th). The core results showed that during lockdown periods, the average of NO(2), AOD, and SUHII levels declined by 23.7%, 3.7%, and 19.2%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2019. Validation for results demonstrates a high agreement between the predicted and measured values. The agreement was as high as R(2)=0.7, R(2)=0.6, and R(2)=0.68 for NO(2), AOD, and night LST, respectively, indicating significant positive linear correlations. The current study concludes that due to declining automobile and industrial emissions in the NEUAE, the lockdown initiatives substantially lowered NO(2), AOD, and SUHII. In addition, the aerosols did not alter significantly since they are often linked to the natural occurrence of dust storms throughout this time of the year. The pandemic is likely to influence several policy decisions to introduce strategies to control air pollution and SUHII. Lockdown experiences may theoretically play a key role in the future as a possible solution for air pollution and SUHII abatement.
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spelling pubmed-78338782021-01-26 Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates Alqasemi, Abduldaem S. Hereher, Mohamed E. Kaplan, Gordana Al-Quraishi, Ayad M. Fadhil Saibi, Hakim Sci Total Environ Article The 2019 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus Diseases (COVID-19) has posed a substantial threat to public health and major global economic losses. The Northern Emirates of the United Arab Emirates (NEUAE) had imposed intense preventive lockdown measures. On the first of April 2020, a lockdown was implemented. It was assumed, due to lower emissions, that the air quality and Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity (SUHII) had been strengthened significantly. In this research, three parameters for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO(2)), Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), and SUHII variables were examined through the NEUAE. we evaluated the percentage of the change in these parameters as revealed by satellite data for 2 cycles in 2019 (March 1st to June 30th) and 2020 (March 1st to June 30th). The core results showed that during lockdown periods, the average of NO(2), AOD, and SUHII levels declined by 23.7%, 3.7%, and 19.2%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2019. Validation for results demonstrates a high agreement between the predicted and measured values. The agreement was as high as R(2)=0.7, R(2)=0.6, and R(2)=0.68 for NO(2), AOD, and night LST, respectively, indicating significant positive linear correlations. The current study concludes that due to declining automobile and industrial emissions in the NEUAE, the lockdown initiatives substantially lowered NO(2), AOD, and SUHII. In addition, the aerosols did not alter significantly since they are often linked to the natural occurrence of dust storms throughout this time of the year. The pandemic is likely to influence several policy decisions to introduce strategies to control air pollution and SUHII. Lockdown experiences may theoretically play a key role in the future as a possible solution for air pollution and SUHII abatement. The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 2021-05-01 2020-12-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7833878/ /pubmed/33434848 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144330 Text en © 2020 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Alqasemi, Abduldaem S.
Hereher, Mohamed E.
Kaplan, Gordana
Al-Quraishi, Ayad M. Fadhil
Saibi, Hakim
Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates
title Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates
title_full Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates
title_fullStr Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates
title_full_unstemmed Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates
title_short Impact of COVID-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the United Arab Emirates
title_sort impact of covid-19 lockdown upon the air quality and surface urban heat island intensity over the united arab emirates
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7833878/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33434848
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144330
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