Analyzing relationships between air pollutants and Covid-19 cases during lockdowns in Iran using Sentinel-5 data

Introduction: Air quality improvement was an unparalleled environmental consequence of the Covid-19 global crisis in many regions. Numerous researches have been conducted on the influence of national quarantines on air pollution and the relationship between the abundance of infected cases and mortality caused by this pandemic with air pollutants; however, these investigations are limited in Iran. The present study aims to investigate the correlation between Covid-19 cases and air pollution from a statistical viewpoint in order to evaluate the performance of multiple national lockdowns from February 2020 to August 2021 through measuring changes in air pollutants in the 31 provinces of Iran. Materials and methods: We applied a remote sensing method by employing Sentinel-5P satellite data to analyze changes in PM2.5, CO, and O3 during the three public quarantine periods and their two months earlier. Results: We recognized a considerable positive correlation between PM2.5 and the infected cases (r=0.63, p=0.001) and victims (r=0.41, p=0.001). Moreover, we compared the efficiency of lockdowns and supposed lockdown 2 (November-December 2020) as an only effective quarantine due to a dramatic reduction in PM2.5 (21.2%), CO (0.8%), the infected cases (48.7%), and victims (66.9%) in comparison to the average of its next two months. Conclusion: Governments should handle the outbreak of Covid-19 by implementing efficient quarantines, as well as environmental conservation strategies.

Inclusion of Renewable Energy Sources in Municipal Environmental Policy—The Case Study of Kraków, Poland

This article reviews the evolution of local environmental policy in the context of energy transition and particularly the implementation of RES. The study concerns Kraków, whose policy has been compared with other cities and metropolises and was analysed in a timespan of about 30 years. It was hypothesised that, until recently, RES were treated in the city with reserve concerning their feasibility in local environmental and economic conditions, but since RES have been appreciated as a viable means to effectively combat low-stack emissions, the local air quality targets have been integrated with global decarbonisation goals. This launched a dedicated subsidy stream for RES installations and contributed to the sharp increase in the number of installations. Trend analysis techniques have been used to study environmental indicators in relation to the evolution of municipal policies, the expenditures, and their effects. The review confirms that the implementation of RES had not been a priority for Kraków but a complementary measure to those aimed at improving air quality. The recent integration of the environmental and RES policies has been the next step that is now helping to pursue both the city’s strategic goals: further air quality improvement and climate neutrality by 2050. Kraków may serve as an example of a city that has treated RES in a manner adequate to local conditions and capabilities, thus achieving the intended goals.

The Estimation of the Willingness to Pay for Air-Quality Improvement in Thailand

Thailand has experienced severe air-quality problems for the past 10 years. Complicating this situation, the Thai government allocates an insufficient budget for the management of air pollution. Using the contingent valuation method, this paper estimates the willingness to pay for air-quality improvement in Thailand to reveal the benefits that people will gain if air-quality improves. The results show that the total benefits from air-quality improvement would be 18.8 billion baht in 2020. The Thai government can use these findings as a guideline to redistribute its budget to address air pollution more effectively.

Renewable Energy Sources vs. an Air Quality Improvement in Urbanized Areas - the Metropolitan Area of Kraków Case

The premise for the selection of the topic discussed in this article is the lack of research on the level of reduction of air pollutant emissions by the use of photovoltaic micro-installations in single-family buildings, both in Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, the Authors made an attempt to estimate the scale of air pollution reduction (in particular CO2) in the area of the urbanized Metropolitan area of Krakow, which is one of the most polluted regions in Poland. The installation of photovoltaic panels on single-family buildings, co-financed by the government My Electricity Program, is the investment cost in improving the air quality in this region, and thus increasing the well-being of its inhabitants.