scholarly journals Impact of environmental indicators on the COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi, India

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry Mangla ◽  
Ashok Kumar Pathak ◽  
Prafulla Kumar Sahoo

Abstract Currently there is a huge debate on whether meteorological and air quality parameters are playing a crucial role in the transmission of COVID-19 across the globe. On this background, this study aims to evaluate the impact of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, CO, NOx, SO2, AQI), and meteorological parameters (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and rainfall) on the spread, recoveries and mortality due to COVID-19 outbreak in Delhi. Spearman’s correlation method is employed on a secondary data collected from the Ministry of Environment, India and the COVID-19 data collected using daily government health bulletins for Delhi. Our result shows that the COVID-19 incidences are significantly positively correlated with temperature (r infections= 0.90, r recoveries= 0.84, r deaths= 0.83, p<0.05) and negatively correlated with humidity (r infections = -0.63, r recoveries = -0.58, r deaths = -0.56, p<0.05). This finding indicates that temperature and humidity play a significant role on the infections, recoveries and deaths due to the COVID-19. The study results may be useful for policymakers in managing the outbreak of COVID-19 in Delhi, India.

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1003
Author(s):  
Sherry Mangla ◽  
Ashok Kumar Pathak ◽  
Mohd. Arshad ◽  
Doyel Ghosh ◽  
Prafulla Kumar Sahoo ◽  
...  

Currently, there is a massive debate on whether meteorological and air quality parameters play a crucial role in the transmission of COVID-19 across the globe. With this background, this study aims to evaluate the impact of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO, NO2, and O3) and meteorological parameters (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and rainfall) on the spread and mortality due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Delhi from 14 Mar 2020 to 3 May 2021. The Spearman’s rank correlation method employed on secondary data shows a significant correlation between the COVID-19 incidences and the PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO, NO2, and O3 concentrations. Amongst the four meteorological parameters, temperature is strongly correlated with COVID-19 infections and deaths during the three phases, i.e., pre-lockdown (14 March 2020 to 24 March 2020) (r = 0.79), lockdown (25 March 2020 to 31 May 2020) (r = 0.87), and unlock (1 June 2020 to 3 May 2021) (r = −0.75), explaining the variability of about 20–30% in the lockdown period and 18–19% in the unlock period. NO2 explained the maximum variability of 10% and 7% in the total confirmed cases and deaths among the air pollutants, respectively. A generalized linear model could explain 80% and 71% of the variability in confirmed cases and deaths during the lockdown and 82% and 81% variability in the unlock phase, respectively. These findings suggest that these factors may contribute to the transmission of the COVID-19 and its associated deaths. The study results would enhance the ongoing research related to the influence of environmental factors. They would be helpful for policymakers in managing the outbreak of COVID-19 in Delhi, India.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (23) ◽  
pp. 15011-15031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Xie ◽  
Kuanguang Zhu ◽  
Tijian Wang ◽  
Wen Feng ◽  
Da Gao ◽  
...  

Abstract. Anthropogenic heat (AH) emissions from human activities can change the urban circulation and thereby affect the air pollution in and around cities. Based on statistic data, the spatial distribution of AH flux in South China is estimated. With the aid of the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF/Chem), in which the AH parameterization is developed to incorporate the gridded AH emissions with temporal variation, simulations for January and July in 2014 are performed over South China. By analyzing the differences between the simulations with and without adding AH, the impact of AH on regional meteorology and air quality is quantified. The results show that the regional annual mean AH fluxes over South China are only 0.87 W m−2, but the values for the urban areas of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region can be close to 60 W m−2. These AH emissions can significantly change the urban heat island and urban-breeze circulations in big cities. In the PRD city cluster, 2 m air temperature rises by 1.1° in January and over 0.5° in July, the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) increases by 120 m in January and 90 m in July, 10 m wind speed is intensified to over 0.35 m s−1 in January and 0.3 m s−1 in July, and accumulative precipitation is enhanced by 20–40 % in July. These changes in meteorological conditions can significantly impact the spatial and vertical distributions of air pollutants. Due to the increases in PBLH, surface wind speed and upward vertical movement, the concentrations of primary air pollutants decrease near the surface and increase in the upper levels. But the vertical changes in O3 concentrations show the different patterns in different seasons. The surface O3 concentrations in big cities increase with maximum values of over 2.5 ppb in January, while O3 is reduced at the lower layers and increases at the upper layers above some megacities in July. This phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that chemical effects can play a significant role in O3 changes over South China in winter, while the vertical movement can be the dominant effect in some big cities in summer. Adding the gridded AH emissions can better describe the heterogeneous impacts of AH on regional meteorology and air quality, suggesting that more studies on AH should be carried out in climate and air quality assessments.


Author(s):  
Amtul Bari Tabinda ◽  
Saleha Munir ◽  
Abdullah Yasar ◽  
Asad Ilyas

Criteria air pollutants have their significance for causing health threats and damage to theenvironment. The study was conducted to assess the seasonal and temporal variations of criteria air pollutantsand evaluating the correlations of criteria air pollutants with meteorological parameters in the city ofLahore, Pakistan for a period of one year from April 2010 to March 2011. The concentrations of criteriaair pollutants were determined at fixed monitoring stations equipped with HORIBA analyzers. The annualaverage concentrations (µg/m3) of PM2.5, O3, SO2, CO and NOx (NO+NO2) for this study period were118.94±57.46, 46.0±24.2, 39.9±8.9, 1940±1300 and 130.9±81.0 (61.8±46.2+57.3±22.19), respectively.PM2.5, SO2, CO and NOx had maximum concentrations during winter whereas O3 had maximum concentrationduring summer. Minimum concentrations of PM2.5, SO2 and NOx were found during monsoon as comparedto other seasons due to rainfall which scavenged these pollutants. The O3 showed positive correlation withtemperature and solar radiation but negative correlation with wind speed. All other criteria air pollutantsshowed negative correlation with wind speed, temperature and solar radiation. A significant (P<0.01)correlation was found between NOx and CO (r = 0.779) which showed that NOx and CO arise from commonsource that could be the vehicular emission. PM2.5 was significantly correlated (P<0.01) with NOx (r = 0.524)and CO (r = 0.519), respectively. High traffic intensity and traffic jams were responsible for increased airpollutants level especially the PM2.5, NOx and CO.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-59
Author(s):  
Andrii Avramenko

The improvement of thermodynamic and environmental indicators of energy facilities is a vital and topical problem. Numerical simulation methods are used to investigate the processes of combustion and formation of hazardous substances by computation, and to work out recommendations on increasing the effectiveness of fuel combustion. The paper examines the impact of atmospheric air humidity on the process of combustion of a stoichiometric methane-air mixture in a burner. The combustion process is simulated in the 3D unsteady statement in Cartesian coordinates. In the investigation, the combustion of the methane-air mixture is considered in one stage. Air humidity is considered in the 0 to 100% range. The monoxide nitrogen formation process is described using the extended Zeldovich-Fenimore mechanism. A comparative study has found that increasing air humidity up to 100% reduces the mass emission of monoxide nitrogen by a factor of 1.27, as compared to dry air. The study results can be used for designing equipment that uses methane as fuel.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
hazem al-najjar ◽  
Nadia Al-Rousan ◽  
Ismail A. Elhaty

Abstract Air pollution depends on seasons, wind speed, temperature, wind direction and air pressure. The effect of different seasons on air pollution is not fully addressed in the reported works. The current study investigated the impact of season on air pollutants including SO2, PM10, NO, NOX, and O3 using NARX method. In the applied methodology, a feature selection was used with each pollutant to find the most important season(s). Afterward, six models are designed based on the feature selection to show the impact of seasons in finding the concentration of pollutants. A case study is conducted on Esenyurt which is one of the most populated and industrialized places in Istanbul to validate the proposed framework. The performance of using all of the designed models with different pollutants showed that using season effect led to improving the performance of predictor and generating high R2 and low error functions.


2022 ◽  
Vol 961 (1) ◽  
pp. 012001
Author(s):  
Ahmed Alaa Hussein ◽  
Zahraa S. Mahdi ◽  
Nagam Obaid Kariem

Abstract The study aims to use the fixed box model to calculate the spread of pollutants (CO2, SO2, NOX, particulate) resulting from the burning of fuel used to produce electrical energy in the Nasiriyah city and to know the way they spread in the city through being affected by the wind speed and compare the results calculated from the model with the results measured by the lancom4 device. The results showed that the main pollutants for the air in Nasiriyah was emitted from burning the fuel used for the production of electric power, and the results showed that the concentration of pollutants (CO2, SO2, NOX) was much higher inside the city when compared with the upstream direction of the winds due to its increase with the movement of winds and its entry into the city. Through the application of the fixed box model and when comparing the calculated results through the model with the results measured by the lancom4 device, the error rate was (4 %, 2%, 2%, 5%) for pollutants (CO2, SO2, NOX, particulate) respectively, it was also observed that the highest emission rate of pollutants was result from using heavy fuel (fuel oil) and the lowest emission was from light oil (Dry gas). We noted the spread of pollutants and dilution in the atmosphere increases with the increase in wind speed, excluding for particles mater.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-98
Author(s):  
Bilqis Bolanle Amole ◽  
Ik Muo ◽  
Kamaldeen A. Lawal

Purpose. The main cause of distress in the majority of Nigerian banks is poor corporate governance in the country. Corporate governance (CG) is a contemporary subject attracting the consideration of the corporate world, practitioners, consultants, academia and society at large. As a result, this study explores the financial performance (FP) of money deposit banks (MDBs) in Nigeria as a result of corporate governance put in. It went on to investigate the impact of board size and composition, as well as the audit committee, on bank financial performance. Methodology. A descriptive design method was adopted, while secondary data in the form of yearly financial reports of banks selected for the study were obtained and relevant documents via electronic search of databases. Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing the data and an econometric model of panel least square (PLS) regression test was employed for the study. Findings and Implication. The findings affirmed that the correlation between size of board of directors and bank performance was significant, however negative. The results of the study show that the board of directors (BOD) composition significantly influences the FP of MDBs. The study results further reveal that the correlation between size of the audit committee (AC) and FP of MDBs is significant and also a negative one. As a result, based on the empirical findings of the study, it is concluded that CG has a statistically significant influence on the FP of Nigeria’s listed money deposit banks. Mechanisms such as the large size and composition of the board as well as the size of the audit committee encourage a negative impact on the FP. In line with the foregoing, the study recommended that an effort be made to improve CG, in the sense that the number of directors on board should be kept to a desirable level, and that the ratio of executive directors to non-executive directors, as well as the size of the audit committee, is kept at an optimal level.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
S.A. Kurolap ◽  
V.S. Petrosyan ◽  
O.V. Klepikov ◽  
V.V. Kulnev ◽  
D.Yu. Martynov

Based on the analysis of official statistics from the Voronezh Hydrometeorological Service, the patterns of the dynamics of pollutants (formaldehyde and soot) are investigated depending on the combination of various meteorological parameters — air temperature, wind speed, relative air humidity. A positive relationship has been established between the increase in atmospheric pollution with formaldehyde and air temperature. With increasing wind speed and relative humidity, the concentration of formaldehyde and soot in the atmosphere of the city, as a rule, decrease. The maximum permissible level of carcinogenic risk to public health has been established, causing concern. The obtained patterns can be used to predict the level of technogenic pollution of the city’s atmosphere, depending on meteorological conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-36
Author(s):  
A.A. Vladimirsky ◽  
◽  
I.A. Vladimirsky ◽  

Two parametric methods for determining the coordinates of leaks in underground pipelines are presented. The methods are a development of the well-known correlation method for determining the coordinates of leaks in the direction of taking into account complications that introduce a multiplicity of types of waves and damage in conjunction with extraneous interference. Both methods use secondary data processing, namely the processing of correlation functions to determine their quality parameters, which are then maximized. According to the first method, maximization occurs using the spatial displacement of the sensors at the points of access to the pipeline, according to the second method, by choosing the frequency range of signals. For this, the correlation function is provided in the form of a frequency dependence of its quality parameters - power, signal-to-noise ratio, with the display of the corresponding coordinate. Also, the concepts of "coordinate shelf" and its length, which are convenient for analysis, are used. The methods have been practically tested. Both methods are explained with examples.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 10387-10404 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Struzewska ◽  
J. W. Kaminski

Abstract. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of urban cover on high-resolution air quality forecast simulations with the GEM-AQ (Global Environmental Multiscale and Air Quality) model. The impact of urban area on the ambient atmosphere is non-stationary, and short-term variability of meteorological conditions may result in significant changes of the observed intensity of urban heat island and pollutant concentrations. In this study we used the Town Energy Balance (TEB) parameterization to represent urban effects on modelled meteorological and air quality parameters at the final nesting level with horizontal resolution of ~5 km over Southern Poland. Three one-day cases representing different meteorological conditions were selected and the model was run with and without the TEB parameterization. Three urban cover categories were used in the TEB parameterization: mid-high buildings, very low buildings and low density suburbs. Urban cover layers were constructed based on an area fraction of towns in a grid cell. To analyze the impact of urban parameterization on modelled meteorological and air quality parameters, anomalies in the lowest model layer for the air temperature, wind speed and pollutant concentrations were calculated. Anomalies of the specific humidity fields indicate that the use of the TEB parameterization leads to a systematic reduction of moisture content in the air. Comparison with temperature and wind speed measurements taken at urban background monitoring stations shows that application of urban parameterization improves model results. For primary pollutants the impact of urban areas is most significant in regions characterized with high emissions. In most cases the anomalies of NO2 and CO concentrations were negative. This reduction is most likely caused by an enhanced vertical mixing due to elevated surface temperature and modified vertical stability.


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