TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Urban Air Quality
T2 - A Case Study of Monterrey, Mexico
AU - Schiavo, Benedetto
AU - Morton-Bermea, Ofelia
AU - Arredondo-Palacios, Thania Elizabeth
AU - Meza-Figueroa, Diana
AU - Robles-Morua, Agustin
AU - García-Martínez, Rocío
AU - Valera-Fernández, Daisy
AU - Inguaggiato, Claudio
AU - Gonzalez-Grijalva, Belem
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has caused several millions of deaths and forced the world population to a new normality. This study aims to analyze the air quality variation of several gaseous pollutants (CO, NO2, SO2, O3, PM10, and PM2.5) during the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and unlock period in the city of Monterrey using ground-based measurements. In this research, we proposed to use a control period of previous years to identify parameter variation due to local climate. The results showed a drastic decrease in measured contaminants during the lockdown period as follows: SO2 (−41.9%) > PM10 (−30.5%) > PM2.5 (−25.6%) > NO2 (−14.9%) > CO (−9.8%) compared to the control period (2017–2019). The O3 was the only air pollutant that showed an opposite trend, increasing during lockdown (+15%) and unlock (+2.2%), whereas CO (−16.6%) and NO2 (−30.6%) were further decreased. Moreover, using OMI/AURA satellite data, we detected a NO2 tropospheric column reduction by −1.9% during lockdown concerning the same period in the control interval. Moreover, we found a significant improvement in the Air Quality Index (AQI) due to the lockdown. Our findings indicate an association between air pollutants and economic activity and can be used in future strategies to improve urban air quality.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has caused several millions of deaths and forced the world population to a new normality. This study aims to analyze the air quality variation of several gaseous pollutants (CO, NO2, SO2, O3, PM10, and PM2.5) during the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and unlock period in the city of Monterrey using ground-based measurements. In this research, we proposed to use a control period of previous years to identify parameter variation due to local climate. The results showed a drastic decrease in measured contaminants during the lockdown period as follows: SO2 (−41.9%) > PM10 (−30.5%) > PM2.5 (−25.6%) > NO2 (−14.9%) > CO (−9.8%) compared to the control period (2017–2019). The O3 was the only air pollutant that showed an opposite trend, increasing during lockdown (+15%) and unlock (+2.2%), whereas CO (−16.6%) and NO2 (−30.6%) were further decreased. Moreover, using OMI/AURA satellite data, we detected a NO2 tropospheric column reduction by −1.9% during lockdown concerning the same period in the control interval. Moreover, we found a significant improvement in the Air Quality Index (AQI) due to the lockdown. Our findings indicate an association between air pollutants and economic activity and can be used in future strategies to improve urban air quality.
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - air quality
KW - environmental pollution
KW - lockdown
KW - monterrey
KW - nitrogen dioxide
KW - particulate matter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145925344&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su15010642
DO - 10.3390/su15010642
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85145925344
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 15
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 1
M1 - 642
ER -