Environmental impacts of shifts in energy, emissions, and urban heat island during the COVID-19 lockdown across Pakistan

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:291

Article

Ali, Ghaffar¹  Abbas, Sawaid^2,4  Qamer, Faisal Mueen³  Wong, Man Sing^2,4  Rasul, Ghulam³  Irteza, Syed Muhammad⁵  Shahzad, Naeem² 

[1] Shenzhen Univ, Coll Management, Nanhai Ave 3688, Shenzhen 518060, Peoples R China

[2] Hong Kong Polytech Univ, Dept Land Surveying & Geoinformat, Hong Kong, Peoples R China

[3] Int Ctr Integrated Mt Dev ICIMOD, Kathmandu 44700, Nepal

[4] Hong Kong Polytech Univ, Res Inst Sustainable Urban Dev, Hong Kong, Peoples R China

[5] Univ Punjab, Natl Ctr GIS & Space Applicat, Remote Sensing GIS & Climat Res Lab RSGCRL, Lahore, Pakistan

关键词: Air pollution;    COVID-19;    Energy emissions;    Lockdown;    Nitrogen dioxide (NO2);    Pakistan;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.125806

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Restrictions on human and industrial activities due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have resulted in an unprecedented reduction in energy consumption and air pollution around the world. Quantifying these changes in environmental conditions due to government-enforced containment measures provides a unique opportunity to understand the patterns, origins and impacts of air pollutants. During the lockdown in Pakistan, a significant reduction in energy demands and a decline of similar to 1786 GWh (gigawatt hours) in electricity generation is reported. We used satellite observational data for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), aerosol optical depth (AOD) and land surface temperature (LST) to explore the associated environmental impacts of shifts in energy demands and emissions across Pakistan. During the strict lockdown period (March 23 to April 15, 2020), we observed a reduction in NO2 emissions by 40% from coal-based power plants followed by 30% in major urban areas compared to the same period in 2019. Also, around 25% decrease in AOD (at 550 nm) thickness in industrial and energy sectors was observed although no major decrease was evident in urban areas. Most of the industrial regions resumed emissions during the 3rd quarter of April 2020 while the urban regions maintained reduced emissions for a longer period. Nonetheless, a gradual increase has been observed since April 16 due to relaxations in lockdown implementations. Restrictions on transportation in the cities resulted in an evident drop in the surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect, particularly in megacities. The changes reported as well as the analytical framework provides a baseline benchmark to assess the sectoral pollution contributions to air quality, especially in the scarcity of ground-based monitoring systems across the country. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

【 授权许可】

Free