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The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Air Quality—A Global Review

Author

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  • Abdullah Addas

    (Landscape Architecture Department, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80210, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia)

  • Ahmad Maghrabi

    (Landscape Architecture Department, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80210, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a serious public health threat and has had a tremendous impact on all spheres of the environment. The air quality across the world improved because of COVID-19 lockdowns. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, large numbers of studies have been carried out on the impact of lockdowns on air quality around the world, but no studies have been carried out on the systematic review on the impact of lockdowns on air quality. This study aims to systematically assess the bibliographic review on the impact of lockdowns on air quality around the globe. A total of 237 studies were identified after rigorous review, and 144 studies met the criteria for the review. The literature was surveyed from Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and the Google search engine. The results reveal that (i) most of the studies were carried out on Asia (about 65%), followed by Europe (18%), North America (6%), South America (5%), and Africa (3%); (ii) in the case of countries, the highest number of studies was performed on India (29%), followed by China (23%), the U.S. (5%), the UK (4%), and Italy; (iii) more than 60% of the studies included NO 2 for study, followed by PM 2.5 (about 50%), PM 10 , SO 2 , and CO; (iv) most of the studies were published by Science of the Total Environment (29%), followed by Aerosol and Air Quality Research (23%), Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health (9%), and Environmental Pollution (5%); (v) the studies reveal that there were significant improvements in air quality during lockdowns in comparison with previous time periods. Thus, this diversified study conducted on the impact of lockdowns on air quality will surely assist in identifying any gaps, as it outlines the insights of the current scientific research.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdullah Addas & Ahmad Maghrabi, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Air Quality—A Global Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-31, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10212-:d:634403
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Shuai Pan & Jia Jung & Zitian Li & Xuewei Hou & Anirban Roy & Yunsoo Choi & H. Oliver Gao, 2020. "Air Quality Implications of COVID-19 in California," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Serdar Aydın & Betina Assumpta Nakiyingi & Cengiz Esmen & Sinan Güneysu & Meena Ejjada, 2021. "Environmental impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) from Turkish perceptive," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7573-7580, May.
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    4. Eric S. Coker & Laura Cavalli & Enrico Fabrizi & Gianni Guastella & Enrico Lippo & Maria Laura Parisi & Nicola Pontarollo & Massimiliano Rizzati & Alessandro Varacca & Sergio Vergalli, 2020. "The Effects of Air Pollution on COVID-19 Related Mortality in Northern Italy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 611-634, August.
    5. Wen Ming & Zhengqing Zhou & Hongshan Ai & Huimin Bi & Yuan Zhong, 2020. "COVID-19 and Air Quality: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2422-2442, August.
    6. Guojun He & Yuhang Pan & Takanao Tanaka, 2020. "The short-term impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air pollution in China," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(12), pages 1005-1011, December.
    7. Tejaswini Eregowda & Pritha Chatterjee & Digvijay S. Pawar, 2021. "Impact of lockdown associated with COVID19 on air quality and emissions from transportation sector: case study in selected Indian metropolitan cities," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 401-412, September.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Paweł Ziemba & Mateusz Piwowarski & Kesra Nermend, 2023. "Remote Work in Post-Pandemic Reality—Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Teleconferencing Software," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-20, June.

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