Pal Sudip K, Masum Md Mehedi Hassan
Department of Civil Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology, Raozan, Pahartali, Chatttogram 4349, Bangladesh.
Department of Civil Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology, Chatttogram 4349, Bangladesh.
Urban Clim. 2021 Sep;39:100952. doi: 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100952. Epub 2021 Aug 13.
Worldwide improved air quality in different cities is reported influenced by lockdown came in force due to COVID-19 pandemic; however, as expected, such changes might have been different in different places. And what is still not very clear whether air quality pollutants have some link to account COVID-19 positive cases and death tolls. This study aims to evaluate the spatiotemporal variability of air pollutants and their relationship to COVID-19 positive cases in major cities in Bangladesh. The relevant data of air pollutants and COVID-19 positive cases are collected, analyzed, discussed for lockdown period of 26 March to 26 April 2020 in comparison to data for same period averaging over 2013 to 2019 for eight major cities in Bangladesh. To characterize air pollutants affected by lockdown, trend and rate of changes were carried out using Mann-Kandle and Sen's slope methods, while spatial variability across the cities was done using ArcGIS and statistics within ArcGIS. The substantial reduction of mean concentrations in the range of 30-65%, 20-80%, 30 - 80%, 65 - 90% and 75 - 90% across the cities is found during lockdown compared to typical mean in previous years for the PM, PM, SO, CO, and NO concentrations in air. Among the cities studied, it is seen that relatively lesser reduction in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj and moderate reduction in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal, while significantly bigger reduction in Sylhet influenced by the city attributes and climatic variabilities. Among all the pollutants studied, the increasing trends of NO and CO in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj are unexpected even in lockdown pointing the effectiveness of lockdown management. Correlation among the air pollutants and confirmed COVID-19 cases across the cities depict foggy relationship, while PCA integrated over the cities revealed association with gaseous pollutants pointing stronger effects of NO. This relationship illustrates air pollution health effects may increase vulnerability to COVID-19 cases.
据报道,由于新冠疫情实施封锁,全球不同城市的空气质量得到改善;然而,正如预期的那样,不同地方的变化可能有所不同。而且,空气质量污染物与新冠确诊病例和死亡人数之间是否存在某种关联仍不太清楚。本研究旨在评估孟加拉国主要城市空气污染物的时空变化及其与新冠确诊病例的关系。收集、分析和讨论了2020年3月26日至4月26日封锁期间空气污染物和新冠确诊病例的相关数据,并与孟加拉国八个主要城市2013年至2019年同期的平均数据进行了比较。为了描述受封锁影响的空气污染物,使用曼-肯德尔法和森斜率法进行了趋势和变化率分析,同时利用ArcGIS和ArcGIS内的统计数据对城市间的空间变异性进行了分析。与前几年的典型平均值相比,封锁期间各城市空气中的PM、PM、SO、CO和NO浓度平均降低了30 - 65%、20 - 80%、30 - 80%、65 - 90%和75 - 90%。在所研究的城市中,达卡、加济布尔和纳拉扬甘杰的降幅相对较小,吉大港、拉杰沙希、库尔纳和巴里萨尔的降幅适中;而锡尔赫特受城市属性和气候变异性的影响降幅显著更大。在所有研究的污染物中,即使在封锁期间,达卡、加济布尔和纳拉扬甘杰的NO和CO呈上升趋势,这表明了封锁管理的有效性。各城市空气污染物与确诊新冠病例之间的相关性呈现出模糊的关系,而对各城市进行主成分分析揭示了与气态污染物的关联,表明NO的影响更强。这种关系表明空气污染对健康的影响可能会增加感染新冠病例的易感性。