Assessment of water quality in a tropical ramsar wetland of southern India in the wake of COVID-19

The novel SARS-CoV-2 virus influenced the world severely in the first half of 2020 caused shut down of all kind of human activities. It is reported that a word-wide ecological improvement in terms of air quality and water quality during this lock down period. In the present study, an attempt has been made to study the progression in water quality through examining suspended particulate matter using remote sensing data in a tropical Ramsar site viz, Asthamudi Lake in Southern India. The change in spectral reflectance of water along the study area were analyzed and suspended particulate matter (SPM) is estimated from Landsat 8 OLI images. A comparison analysis of pre and co lockdown periods reveal that the concentration of SPM values during lockdown (mean SPM 8.01 mg/l) is lower than that of pre-lockdown (10.03 mg/l). The time series analysis of last five-year data from 2015 to 2020 also shows an average decrease of 43% in SPM concentration during lockdown period compared to the last five-year average value of 9.1 mg/l. The reasons for improvement of SPM in water quality during the lockdown period in April–May 2020 was discussed, in terms of the role of anthropogenic activities and strategies for the sustainable management of coastal ecosystems and water resources in the Asthamudi Lake were also presented.