Browsing by Author "Manuel De la Sen"

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Highlighting the compound risk of COVID-19 and environmental pollutants using geospatial technology
(Nature Research, 2021) Ram Kumar Singh; Martin Drews; Manuel De la Sen; Prashant Kumar Srivastava; Bambang H. Trisasongko; Manoj Kumar; Manish Kumar Pandey; Akash Anand; S.S. Singh; A.K. Pandey; Manmohan Dobriyal; Meenu Rani; Pavan Kumar
The new COVID-19 coronavirus disease has emerged as a global threat and not just to human health but also the global economy. Due to the pandemic, most countries affected have therefore imposed periods of full or partial lockdowns to restrict community transmission. This has had the welcome but unexpected side effect that existing levels of atmospheric pollutants, particularly in cities, have temporarily declined. As found by several authors, air quality can inherently exacerbate the risks linked to respiratory diseases, including COVID-19. In this study, we explore patterns of air pollution for ten of the most affected countries in the world, in the context of the 2020 development of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that the concentrations of some of the principal atmospheric pollutants were temporarily reduced during the extensive lockdowns in the spring. Secondly, we show that the seasonality of the atmospheric pollutants is not significantly affected by these temporary changes, indicating that observed variations in COVID-19 conditions are likely to be linked to air quality. On this background, we confirm that air pollution may be a good predictor for the local and national severity of COVID-19 infections. © 2021, The Author(s).
Nitrogen dioxide as proxy indicator of air pollution from fossil fuel burning in New Delhi during lockdown phases of COVID-19 pandemic period: impact on weather as revealed by Sentinel-5 precursor (5p) spectrometer sensor
(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2024) Pavan Kumar; Aishwarya; Prashant Kumar Srivastava; Manish Kumar Pandey; Akash Anand; Jayanta Kumar Biswas; Martin Drews; Manmohan Dobriyal; Ram Kumar Singh; Manuel De la Sen; Sati Shankar Singh; Ajai Kumar Pandey; Manoj Kumar; Meenu Rani
There has been a long-lasting impact of the lockdown imposed due to COVID-19 on several fronts. One such front is climate which has seen several implications. The consequences of climate change owing to this lockdown need to be explored taking into consideration various climatic indicators. Further impact on a local and global level would help the policymakers in drafting effective rules for handling challenges of climate change. For in-depth understanding, a temporal study is being conducted in a phased manner in the New Delhi region taking NO2 concentration and utilizing statistical methods to elaborate the quality of air during the lockdown and compared with a pre-lockdown period. In situ mean values of the NO2 concentration were taken for four different dates, viz. 4th February, 4th March, 4th April, and 25th April 2020. These concentrations were then compared with the Sentinel (5p) data across 36 locations in New Delhi which are found to be promising. The results indicated that the air quality has been improved maximum in Eastern Delhi and the NO2 concentrations were reduced by one-fourth than the pre-lockdown period, and thus, reduced activities due to lockdown have had a significant impact. The result also indicates the preciseness of Sentinel (5p) for NO2 concentrations. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2023.