Impact of lockdown measures during COVID-19 on air quality– A case study of India

ABSTRACT

A novel infectious coronavirus disease (COVID-19) identified in late 2019 has now been labelled as a global pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO). The COVID-19 outbreak has shown some positive impacts on the natural environment. In present work, India is taken as a case study to evaluate the effect of lockdown on air quality of three Indian cities. The variation in concentration of key air pollutants including $P{M}_{10}$, $P{M}_{2.5}$, $N{O}_2$, $S{O}_2$ and $O_3$ during two phases, pre-lockdown and post-lockdown phases, was analysed. The concentration of $P{M}_{10}$, $P{M}_{2.5}$, $N{O}_2$ and $S{O}_2$ reduced by 55%, 49%, 60% and 19%, and 44%, 37%, 78% and 39% for Delhi and Mumbai, respectively, during post-lockdown phase. Overall, the findings in present study may provide confidence to the stakeholders involved in air quality policy development that a significant improvement in air quality can be achieved in future if better pollution control plans are strictly executed.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• air quality
• lockdown
• India

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to acknowledge Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India for the fellowship.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.