Geography and Urban Sustainability, College of Humanities & Social Science, UAEU, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates.
Geography Department, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman; Environmental Sciences Dept., Faculty of Science, Damietta University, New Damietta, Egypt.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 May 1;767:144330. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144330. Epub 2020 Dec 25.
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), 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, 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=0.7, R=0.6, and R=0.68 for NO, 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, 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.
2019 年严重急性呼吸系统综合症-冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行对公共卫生和全球重大经济损失构成了重大威胁。阿拉伯联合酋长国的北部酋长国（NEUAE）采取了严格的预防封锁措施。2020 年 4 月 1 日，实施了封锁。由于排放量较低，假设空气质量和地表城市热岛强度（SUHII）得到了显著加强。在这项研究中，通过 NEUAE 检查了二氧化氮（NO），气溶胶光学深度（AOD）和 SUHII 变量的三个参数。我们通过卫星数据评估了这些参数在 2019 年（3 月 1 日至 6 月 30 日）和 2020 年（3 月 1 日至 6 月 30 日）两个周期中的变化百分比。核心结果表明，在封锁期间，NO，AOD 和 SUHII 水平的平均值分别比 2019 年同期下降了 23.7％，3.7％和 19.2％。结果验证表明，预测值与实测值之间具有高度一致性。NO，AOD 和夜间 LST 的 R 值分别高达 0.7，0.6 和 0.68，表明存在显著的正线性相关。本研究得出的结论是，由于 NEUAE 汽车和工业排放量的下降，封锁措施大大降低了 NO，AOD 和 SUHII。此外，气溶胶没有发生明显变化，因为它们通常与每年这个时候自然发生的沙尘暴有关。大流行很可能会影响到几项政策决策，以引入控制空气污染和 SUHII 的策略。封锁经验理论上可能会在未来发挥关键作用，成为控制空气污染和 SUHII 的一种可能解决方案。
