6 Aftermath of Industrial Pollution, Post COVID-19 …
153
Fig. 6.7 Current (2020) and historical (2017–2019) county concentrations of NO 2 (a) and PM2.5
(b) during the COVID-19 period (March 13 through April 8th) Shapes denote county urban–rural
status; triangles = rural, square = urban, dots = major urban (Source [5])
in China. Also in correspondence to the time stretch, followed by the spring festival
holidays in 2019 (within the same 2 weeks), the CO 2 emission got lowered by 25%
or more. The above data explains that China has dwindled to about 1 million tons
of carbon emissions, analogous to the 6% of global emissions over the same period.
These fall in levels coincided with the lockdown during the pandemic.
Another study done by Li et al. [36] on Yangtze River Delta (YRD) which is
a group of major economic cities of China suggests that concentration of PM2.5,
PM10, CO, SO 2, and NO 2 got reduced by 33.2, 29.0, 14.7, 25.9, 27.2, and 7.6% in
comparison with 2019 before the epidemic (Fig. 6.8). This reasoning gained attention,
especially in the winters as the air quality worsens as compared to other seasons. The
improvement in the AQI of this reason has a direct relationship with restrictions in
human activities.
Another major country affected by COVID-19 is India. India is a developing
country with lots of industries, construction work, mining, and a huge population.
Due to these reasons Indian cities have always been making their way in the top twenty
polluted cities of the world for the recent past few years and exceeding the ambient air
quality standards suggested by WHO and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
[59]. As the government of India implemented a complete lockdown of 21 days
starting from March 23, 2020, North India saw a great decline in the concentration
of PM2.5, PM10, NO, and NO 2 . For example, the PM2.5 concentration decreased by
34% in 2020 while it had decreased by only 12% in recent years. Similar results were
observed in the other parts of India. There was a slight increase in the concentration
153
Fig. 6.7 Current (2020) and historical (2017–2019) county concentrations of NO 2 (a) and PM2.5
(b) during the COVID-19 period (March 13 through April 8th) Shapes denote county urban–rural
status; triangles = rural, square = urban, dots = major urban (Source [5])
in China. Also in correspondence to the time stretch, followed by the spring festival
holidays in 2019 (within the same 2 weeks), the CO 2 emission got lowered by 25%
or more. The above data explains that China has dwindled to about 1 million tons
of carbon emissions, analogous to the 6% of global emissions over the same period.
These fall in levels coincided with the lockdown during the pandemic.
Another study done by Li et al. [36] on Yangtze River Delta (YRD) which is
a group of major economic cities of China suggests that concentration of PM2.5,
PM10, CO, SO 2, and NO 2 got reduced by 33.2, 29.0, 14.7, 25.9, 27.2, and 7.6% in
comparison with 2019 before the epidemic (Fig. 6.8). This reasoning gained attention,
especially in the winters as the air quality worsens as compared to other seasons. The
improvement in the AQI of this reason has a direct relationship with restrictions in
human activities.
Another major country affected by COVID-19 is India. India is a developing
country with lots of industries, construction work, mining, and a huge population.
Due to these reasons Indian cities have always been making their way in the top twenty
polluted cities of the world for the recent past few years and exceeding the ambient air
quality standards suggested by WHO and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
[59]. As the government of India implemented a complete lockdown of 21 days
starting from March 23, 2020, North India saw a great decline in the concentration
of PM2.5, PM10, NO, and NO 2 . For example, the PM2.5 concentration decreased by
34% in 2020 while it had decreased by only 12% in recent years. Similar results were
observed in the other parts of India. There was a slight increase in the concentration